Girl's Not Grey
by b l a c k r o s e 9
Summary: *UPDATE MAY 7* "You make the hit." Alec confirmed seriously: he had noticed the slight tremor in Jondy's voice when she mentioned their target. "I'll concentrate on my end of the mission. We've got this." Jondy is Max's agent in the field. In the aftermath of Freak Nation follow her role in Coming and the impending Familiar war. Jondy/Zane, Alec Max Logan Cale
1. Prologue

Authors Note:

A long time in the making, this story is written in three sections. It focuses on _Dark Angel_ twelve months beyond the episode of Freak Nation. It primarily concerns the characters Jondy and Zane and their efforts behind the scenes in this AU drama following FN.

This story contains graphic violence, emotional abuse and themes concerning rape and torture. If you find these themes offensive or traumatizing I suggest you cease reading- otherwise you have been warned.

 **Girl's Not Grey**

* * *

 **prologue.**

 _"_ _You'll be under White's nose the whole time baby-sister, you're sure?"_

 _"_ _I'm the best fit Max... I just want to be free, y'know? To be a normal girl- after all."_

 _–_ _Minutes, 'Operation Sandman'._

* * *

Falcon ran ahead, pushing past the undergrowth and Zane, feeling the stinging backlash of vines and reeds slap him in the face, paused for a split second to wipe sweat from his forehead. If they had not been in a dead zone, he would have given the upstart a piece of his mind.

He wondered if his kind had been made immune to jungle fever because the heat of this place was driving him insane. Squinting against the sun, he saw the camouflaged shadow of Falcon dart ahead into the shadows and knew their destination was not far away.

Zane followed with purposeful steps, removing any thought of reprimand or abstract preoccupations from his mind and concentrated only on the mission.

He was doing this for her.

* * *

"Where is she?!"

The shout intensified as it reverberated off of the walls and she flinched.

She felt his hands first; they were snake-like and cold. They made her skin crawl. It was always the same: it was her fear that paralyzed her, a constant weakness- and her only close friend.

Her heart thudded loudly in her ears causing the drip of the drainpipe to dissipate faintly.

A groan of protest escaped her lips when his icy fingertips moved swiftly up the back of her soft thigh, before biting into the flesh of her hip. She should have known it would be futile.

He slammed her roughly onto her back… behind closed eyes she pictured the glow of sunsets over beaches, felt the heady rush of gin and tonic and let denial seep within, silently encouraging it to flower. Her backbone and shoulder blades stung from the impact of his maneuvering and she told herself she almost couldn't feel it. When he grunted above her, struggling to restrain himself, and leered, his grey eyes possessing a duality of lust and malice, the defenseless animal in her wanted nothing more than to tear and scratch out those fortune-telling orbs … but she caged it.

She hated her exhaustion, her weakness, her tactics for self preservation- she wished she could have been bolder, braver, but she was neither of these things... she was just holding on. When his hot acrid breath brushed her cold clammy cheek, the parody of a lovers caress, it was in that hovering complicit moment that she found her resolve.

Her eyes open, she cleared her mind and focused on making her last minutes count.

* * *

 _Please Review_


	2. Chapter 1

**Beginning at the start…**

Her mouth went dry when his sinewy hands locked themselves around her tiny wrists. She chose not to fight when her cold arms were pinned above her head in a bone-crushing grip, one she knew from experience was impossible to break. So weary was she, that now the woman only sought to keep her secrets as her days grew numbered. She had known of the life expectancy of hostages for as long as she could remember and knew emphatically that she was nearing the end of her tether.

Looming over her, her captor roughly pushed her aching thighs apart with his knees, their encasement of soft material contradictory to their wearer's harsh actions. She stared into his face, seeing irritation and satisfaction- irritation that she had not broken, satisfaction that he was the one who got to mete out their revenge on her, to be the punisher for her betrayal of them.

She knew nothing glared back at him when he looked upon his prey, seeing naught but arctic winds and flat depths.

She heard numbly as he undid his fly, tried not to feel anything as he violated her. Her blood gushed to the floor, previously inflicted wounds forcibly reopened and her insides were left searing as she lay, prostrated at his feet.

On the cold, harsh concrete floor, her ivory limbs began to shake of their own accord. His mouth broke into a sick grin at this development and through a concussed haze she fought the instinctive urge to retch.

"What is that fucking _bitch_ made for?"

Her captor's voice, bouncing off the cavernous walls, bit at her sensitive ears, angry and harsh.

Petrified, her heart thudded a staccato as fast as a mouse.

His inner thighs worked, pinning her slim frame in place. His eyes, grey as slate, bore into her, probing and evil.

She fought the reality of her situation with sentimental memories and focused only on the objective, not his occupation of her.

A moment later, his fist smashed into her jaw, her captor impatient at her unresponsiveness.

"Answer me!"

Driven by fear, her mouth opened at the order and her throat began to work desperately to formulate an answer. Her voice came out soft and rasping, blocked by blood and disuse as it pushed against her ribs.

"She's- to _end_ you-"

Despair sunk its knife into her gut and she felt her insides twist in the shame of betrayal, her innate sense of family honor dented.

Satisfaction glinted in his gaze as he shifted his crushing weight from her small body and on to his haunches.

Something rose within her, angry and unrepentant.

The image of her nine-year-old sister surfaced in her mind and she reaffirmed her strength.

She bit her tongue, metallic red filling her mouth. She was not a traitor- she would die first.

Her captor saw her resolution and rage overwhelmed him. He pushed into her and ground her petite frame into the floor, her pelvis and kidneys bruising as her assailant tried to come.

"Answer!"

She turned her head away, swallowing the blood in her mouth, it was thick and slow going down.

He let out a snarl of frustration.

It stung when his hand slapped her across the face forcing her head sideways, the vertebrae in her neck crunched with the force of his blow. Her teeth slipped, digging crevasses into her lips, blood running rivulets down her chin.

The cell before her spun; a miasma of blacks upon blacks it was foreboding and scary. She began to cough, spitting blood onto the damp concrete floor, her legs moving weakly to her chest. She felt the action of her burning diaphragm stimulate her interrogator. He ripped further into her, faster and harder.

Then, for a moment it all ceased.

A hand caught her jaw in an iron like grip and she stared up into frenzied grey eyes. His gun dug into the bruised temple of her swollen left eye, cold and loaded.

"Tell me you fucking whore! Or I blow your brains out!"

There was a wild rage in his eyes and for a heart stopping moment she thought he might do it.

She almost didn't care.

He grunted a moment later and she felt as he pulled himself from her. His removal left her burning and empty on the slimy concrete floor.

He stood, on the verge of spilling his seed and looked down on her starved form, sneering.

"Get up! _Up_! You piece of _transgenic_ scum!" He yelled venomously. Hands caught around her throat, he hauled her to her unsteady feet, his gun dug underneath her chin.

She gagged struggling to breathe, stumbling and choking on his jerking grip, a rushing in her ears. The dark cell before her swam, the faces of the others blurred. Feeling as if she were pushing her way through watery currents, he forced her to her knees in a matter of seconds, laughing with those around him, his cold gun pushed between her bloody lips, oversized and loaded.

The knowledge of the impact such a shot would make resonated soundly in her hazy mind. She would die instantly, her skull prized open, grey matter spraying across the back wall.

Terror shook her.

Her vision darkened around the edges, stars sprang before her open eyes.

She had to be brave- for him. Only for him.

Her hands clawed at the ones locked around her throat.

She couldn't breathe-

She couldn't-

She-

Her vision was consumed by a white haze and only one thought crossed her mind.

 _Zane._

Suddenly, her captor released her throat.

She collapsed to her knees instantly, heaving in shuddering breaths and emitting racking coughs. Her vision cleared. She was still alive. She reigned in the pain when he wrenched her swollen jaw open. Unbalanced, she fell forwards, hands slapping against the unforgiving floor. She lay, curled in on her side gasping for air.

"Where-is-that- _bitch_ -4-5-2?" His tone was deathly quiet and she could only gasp as his tazer connected with her back, muscles convulsing as the electricity tore through her, tearing at her insides.

She hated the smug evil Brother with every fiber of her being. She wanted to see him burn in hell for his crimes.

She looked up at him, gaze fiery, body in shock.

"I. Don't. Know." She asserted thickly between bloodied lips.

 _Duty._

Growling, he bore down on her and reasserted his grip on her, pushing her backwards against the dank wall. She shook all over, her muscles protesting against the awkward angle as he expertly inserted himself into her mouth.

 _Discipline._

Her tongue pushed flaccidly at his stiff form as she tried to get him away from her.

The last defense.

 _Mission._

His seed spilt into her mouth, slipping down her throat. His hand was covering her nose: she couldn't breathe. She pushed at him- fingernails scratching at the palms of his hands, fists pummeling blindly into his flesh, and yet nothing happened, there was no reaction... the effort was pointless. He clutched her wrists in an iron grip, holding them above her head, pushed into the wall. She swallowed his seed desperately, fighting against his restriction of her oxygen, wanting him to finish, wanting to last another minute. Soldiers did not give up.

After what seemed like an age, she was kicked into the wall a second later, her stomach burning and churning, heaving in shuddering breaths, before she felt her throat begin to work. She lay on her stomach, forearms taking her weight, dry retching. Stomach twisting, she lifted her head to look at his vindictive face which bore down on her and spat at his feet before collapsing to the ground.

The nearby sound of firing rounds played dully through her mind and she was reminded of childhood expeditions in the forest, her gut tingling with a discordant sense of hope. She heard dimly as those who had been watching her interrogation cried out in pain- bullets tearing through their skulls. She felt their blood spray onto her naked form.

Once again, his hand wrapped itself crushingly around her bruised throat and he pushed her limp, naked form, possessively into his stocky gait.

His gun was at her head and her mouth fell open in a silent gasp.

He was breathing hard into her ear, chest heaving, reeking of arousal.

She could not speak. She could not breathe. She could not think.

Where?- Where was he?

He had said he would come for her.

Dully she heard frantic shouting and sensed victory among defeat.

"I'll shoot her! Take one more step and I'll shoot the transgenic abomination!"

Flecks of spit settled on her cheek.

A part of her was disgusted, another shaken.

She knew who these men were, whom they belonged to, who they had murdered.

Faintly she heard: _take him out._

She watched the shot whizzed past her bare shoulder, dazed. She felt the impact; it reverberated through her immobile form. His hand had convulsively tightened as the bullet tore through him and he let go of her throat as he fell backwards into the wall.

She fell to the floor like a tonne of bricks, curling into a ball, coughing blood onto the damp concrete cell, head buzzing and dim.

Then, nothing.

Silence.

"All clear." A cool and collected voice from above.

She felt warm arms scoop-up her naked form and felt as if she were viewing herself from afar. She was pressed against kevlar and warmth, carried from the cavernous underground chamber. Subconsciously she traced the path her rescuer traversed as he fled enemy territory. It was when the cool winter air of outside hit her body, she that she was jarred by the reality of her situation.

She was still alive. It was as if she were seven again, new to the world.

"We have the target." Her rescuer's voice was matter-of-fact as he spoke to his commanding officer.

He spirited from the compound under the blurring vision of the stars and comets above, past fences and the roaring sound of gunfire. As he set course through dense forest trees, her discomfort grew among the scent of earthy loam and heavy pine. She weakly pushed at her rescuer feeling sick to her stomach: her head spinning and it was a struggle to breathe. She needed to get onto her own two feet. Eventually he become aware of her ever-mounting distress and finally halted in a protected area, the copse of the trees shielding the pair from attack. Signaling to his teammate to take point, he gently lowered her down from his arms to the shadowy forest floor. Her legs crumpled when her numb feet hit the earthy ground and he deftly caught her before she fell, holding her tiny form as she violently vomited a revolting mix of congealed semen and blood. She was gasping, shuddering against the stabbing coldness of the icy midnight air as stray tears slashed onto her naked breasts, when the world began to spin and blur.

"We gotta go. _Now_."

He paid no attention to her fragile state when he hoisted her roughly across his shoulder, before making haste to a hum-vee situated in a nearby clearing. It's motor was on when they approached. Swiftly, his colleague opened the back door and her rescuer deposited her naked and shaking form into the military issue vehicle. Fighting to remain conscious, she heard both doors slammed shut, his teammate rushing in beside her as the engine sprung to life, gurgling and reverberating the vehicle began to move out.

"Status, men?"

Chills shot down her spine in the muted warmth of the vehicle at the sound of _his_ voice and it's demand.

The stranger in the front passenger seat turned to face the back of the hum-vee, face shrouded in shadow.

The hum-vee rocked when it swerved onto the gravel back road of the compound, her head connecting sharply with the side of the door. Attentively, strong fingers soothed away the stabbing pain in her forehead and moved down to press into the tender flesh of her neck, searching for a pulse. She saw that the darkness of the cavern was filled with white haze and she could barely make out his face in between the mess.

"Stable, but only just." She felt her rescuer's voice reverberate in his chest, a rumble of low thunder.

"Sir? You got any clothes in the back?" The teammate asked.

Eyes rested on her on her critical and assessing.

"Bag in under the seat, Kilan. See what you can find."

 _That_ voice.

She found herself trying to laugh and outwardly spewing racking coughs inside the security of the hum-vee. Rolling her head from her rescuer's chest to face the front of the vehicle, she met his steely gaze through the haze.

"You're- supposed - six feet under- _bastard_." She wheezed out as Kilan lifted her a-ways up from her rescuers arms, slipping a t-shirt over her head.

"I thought I taught you kids never to underestimate your enemy, Jondy." Donald Lydecker replied, impassive to her nakedness.

She let out a dry laugh, before unconsciousness enveloped her.

* * *

 _As always, feedback is much welcomed._


	3. Chapter 2

_Exposure._ It was the only thought that stuck in her mind.

The Familiars had found her out.

The knowledge that Ames White had sought to make her pay before he destroyed her once and for all made Jondy want nothing more than to forget the past six months- if for only a moment. The hum of the motor lulled softly over her ears, purring and comforting, and for the first time in months the anxiety in her stomach lessened. Barely conscious of her surroundings, her eyes remained closed as the hum-vee spiriting her away rocked as it rounded a bend, easing her into the warm comfort of sleep.

"- tough… lasted this long."

A voice from the front filtered in and out of her hearing, her consciousness caught between the real ache of her body and the bliss of sleep. She groaned, curling into the warmth beside her, seeking the profound sense of safety she found there.

"Never, ever… special ops-"

She drew in a deep breath, welcoming arms of darkness and rest.

"That kid never stood a chance in Haiti..."

All she wanted was quiet.

"One of… was the best."

Outside light flickered over her eyes, reminding her of sleepless weeks, lazer beams and propaganda. She shuddered surrounded by the haze of her exhausted will. A whimper escaped her. Her head ached.

"- injuries?"

"Standard POW." The body she snuggled into shifted slightly, tensing.

The momentum of the hum-vee halted at the sound of gears grinding, it abruptly swayed and pulled Jondy from her slumber, but she didn't open her eyes. Her throat tickled.

"Damn- she'd be what? 21?" exclaimed that other voice from the front, younger than the rest.

"19." Another corrected gravely.

" _Jesus._ "

She shifted languidly, her hand sleepily coming up to brush her face. Her arm jarred at the movement when pain shot from her elbow to her fingertips. Her eyes opened blindly in reflex and she bit her lip to keep from crying out, bloodying her mouth.

"Cameron! Shut up!" Admonished a hushed voice close to her.

Perplexed by darkness and shadow outside her internal sleep scape, Jondy closed her eyes. Biting down on the pain, she forcibly relaxed, chasing her slumber.

The vehicle accelerated and an item in the trunk crashed loudly into the passenger partition of the hum-vee. In her dream it was as loud as a mortar hitting the barren and bloodied quad of Terminal City. Jondy was surrounded by the foul stench of death before she jerked awake to meet startled brown eyes. Hurling herself as far away as she could get from the stranger, the back of her head thudding into the glass window, disoriented and gasping in panic the X5 struggled to ascertain her position. Then, she saw the male beside her make to grab her, pin her down and hold her still.

"No!"

Powered by adrenaline, Jondy lashed out, her foot connecting hard with his ribs.

"Touch me," she hissed roughly to the coughing man, yanking the seat belt from its pulley socket, "it'll be the last thing you do you S.O.B."

In one swift movement Jondy pulled it taught between her hands and pressed it flush against his throat. The analytical part of her mind scanning for injuries and her geographical whereabouts noted she was in no position to carry through on her threat. He could overpower her in an instant.

"It's okay…" The man began, his voice raspy against her strangulation efforts. He wore a plain navy blue t-shirt over his body armor now. He winced. "I'm not going to hurt you."

He spoke with a rich, calming, baritone.

 _Yes. Yes you are. You are. You are. You are._

White spots danced before her eyes.

She couldn't breathe. The pseudo-rope fell to the floor, forgotten.

Her hands flew to her bruised throat.

\- _Oh God, she couldn't breathe._

She was going to die here, in this cell…

"I can't… I need air…" she found herself pleading involuntarily. "Please- I-"

Where was she? She didn't know where she was!

In the front, Cameron glanced to Lydecker, seeking permission to pull the vehicle over.

"Keep driving, son," came the stern order of the Colonel.

The driver's jaw clenched. Cameron saw the necessity of the order, felt the cruelty of it acutely. The girl was having a panic attack, for chrissakes. She had been raped and abused and now she was have a natural reaction to being surrounded by strange men in a fricken hum-vee. What did Lydecker expect? Perfection, he knew.

" _Please_ \- I-" came the desperate plea of the pale young woman.

"O'Neil." Lydecker barked, addressing the backseat. "Calm her down or sedate her. Execute a plan."

Thinking quickly, O'Neil did his best impression of a Drill Sergeant as he placed a finger beneath her chin and forced the teenager to look him in the eye.

Jondy stared at him, luminous blue eyes wide, her thin frame tense and ramrod straight.

 _Warm arms and blaring alarms- he is part of the extraction team._

"Take a deep breath. Focus." O'Neil commanded, suspecting that was all one could do when under the grip of a panic attack.

She let out a shaky breath and nodded stiffly, before inhaling and exhaling through swollen lips and jaw.

"Better?" O'Neil questioned, his eyes raking over her gaunt figure assessing the bruising and damage to her body. Had she had teeth pulled?

She left out a small sigh at the enormity of the question. God, it hurt to talk.

She nodded.

"Ok." He placed a non-threatening hand on her shoulder, noting she was beginning to look incredibly pale. "Sit over here."

He gestured to the space between O'Neil and Kilan she had occupied before awakening, acknowledging her dazed nod of her head.

The 09 X5 were in a class of their own, O'Neil thought wearily watching the teenager carefully. They were dangerous and unpredictable... and yet, understandable in their quest for self-determination. He never had enjoyed the pang of sympathy he had experienced whenever he and his teammates had come face to face with their ilk in the past.

Jondy cast her gaze down to the t-shirt she wore, feeling numb. It was a man's. It hung to her knees and the sleeves fell past her elbows. She knew would look she so young to the others, a child in dress-up clothes, yet closing her eyes for a moment to gather her strength Jondy knew she was the oldest there in that van. Deciding she would not cry, she stifled a grimace at the purple bruises marring her wrists while gingerly untangling her bruised and bloodied legs with swollen hands. O'Neil aided her stilted movement to her new position so that Jondy sat with her legs curled beneath her, slumped against the backseat. Between her legs stung sorely and she was aware that she was naked beneath whomever's t-shirt she wore.

"This is Captain Mike Kilan." O'Neil introduced the man at her other side.

Unable to see out of her left eye, Jondy turned her head and glanced at the man beside her, before landing her tired gaze on the back of Lydecker's head. She wanted to know what the son of a bitch was up to.

In the front the driver murmured something to Lydecker.

"Lydecker?" Jondy questioned hoarsely as she lent heavily into her seat, head tilted to the roof, chest sore. In the stillness of the van her voice carried. "Is Zane alive? Is he ok?"

She couldn't look at him- not now that the reality of the situation was beginning to sink in, to affirm her gross incompetence. In her peripheral vision she saw the bane of her childhood turn around to face her, his face impassive and stony.

"You will address me with proper respect, soldier."

Jondy read his tone for what it was: a warning.

Kilan saw some dark look cross the girl's face before she swallowed her pride, her eyes dull. For some reason he could not help feeling short changed- the only time Donald Lydecker ever got put in his place was when he encountered one of his precious 'kids'. And every time Kilan was present at such an exchange of words was a privilege in his eyes. He knew this girl had a fiery mouth.

"Pardon me." Jondy bit out dryly, removing her gaze from a higher vantage point to meet Lydecker's sharp eyes. None of her other muscles moved. She held her anger close, gleaning strength from the emotion. "I've been remiss of good company for so long, I've misplaced my manners."

Her tone was sarcastic, if not haughty. Lydecker, however, saw her weariness beneath the well-constructed façade- he knew his own methods when he encountered them. Jondy looked incredibly pale, he observed. Her usually ivory complexion was greying as the seconds ticked by.

"I see." He spoke curtly, controlling himself and assessing his environment behind a veiled gaze.

With mounting irritation, Jondy inferred by his tone that he wished her to explain herself further: it reignited the smoldering burn of hate she reserved for her former mentor.

"I was enquiring as to the status of X5-789…" She could not prevent her strong tone from hollowing out, nor could she prevent the instantaneous comprehension that dawned behind Lydecker's critical gaze as she fought to maintain control. Her eyesight hazed over, her head pounded. She wanted to cry, to be sick. Jondy swallowed, closing her eyes briefly and shook her head.

She could not be weak in front of him.

"Jondy?" Lydecker questioned, concerned.

 _Weakness is not acceptable._

She sucked in a breath, blinking as she tried to focus on Lydecker, her breathing shallow.

"Colonel Lydecker, I was hoping you would be so… obliging as to inform me of his status." Jondy coughed, the revolting after-taste of vomit ghosting through her mouth. " _Sir_."

Lydecker brushed aside her derision and plainly saw her struggle with the exhaustion that infiltrated her body.

"He's fine, Jondy." Lydecker answered heavily, knowing the platitude to be inaccurate.

At his words she sat forward, ignoring the stab of pain in her abdomen. Lydecker recognized the eagerness that consumed her gaze from her childhood years and he felt a deep disappointment at how easily she gave herself away.

"Where he is? Is he in the country? Is he _alive_?" Jondy bit out desperately, her precarious emotions threadbare for all to take advantage of. "Tell me!"

If Zane were dead, she felt she would lose her will to live. Tears pricked the back of her eyes.

"He is safe, Jondy." Lydecker assured, brow creased in concern: he knew that if she wound herself up any further he would have a problem on his hands. "Any other information is classified."

"Then declassify it!" Jondy cried indignantly, jaw working stiffly and painfully. She was desperately tired of fighting, of not knowing. The cavern of the vehicle spun and ire burned in her belly. For what seemed like the millionth time in her life she damned Lydecker to hell.

O'Neil shot Kilan a concerned glance, leaning down to press his fingers to the leather upholstery. He raised them behind Jondy, red and bloodied. Kilan glanced to the X5 and O'Neil nodded.

"Such emotion is unbecoming, Jondy." Lydecker replied coldly, eyes on his men. "I suggest you calm down before you do yourself further injury." Something warm, thick and sticky slid slowly down her cold leg. "We will be at our destination soon."

His tone brooked no argument and as she mentally assessed herself, Jondy realized she had no energy left to fight.

 _Do with me what you will._

She glanced down, unchecked tears rolling down her cheeks, to see blood stains blooming across the cotton weave of the t-shirt. Closing her eyes, she lent back into the seat, feeling heavy and lethargic.

She couldn't bear to look at Lydecker…she hated him... she really did…

With the knowledge that Zane was safe, she could leave the world now and it would be okay.

He was safe.

O'Neil felt as her heavy weight fell onto him and his eyes widened in horror at the blood soaking the lower half of Cameron's t-shirt.

"Sir! X5-210's crashing!" O'Neil glanced at Kilan in alarm as he attempted find a pulse.

"Cameron pull over!" Lydecker ordered and the hum-vee came to a screeching halt on the out skirts of Wyoming. "O'Neil assess the damage. Kilan monitor her vitals. Do everything you can to keep her alive!"

"Sir, wouldn't it be better-" Cameron begun.

"None of my kids die on my watch, son." Lydecker cut him off, shoving open the hum-vee door. "She is a valuable asset for winning this war- meaning we patch her up as best we can _now_. Monitor communications." He bit out to his driver.

"Yessir."

O'Neil watched the X5's luminous blue eyes flutter, the girl fighting to stay conscious. He glanced up at his alarmed teammate.

"Kilan, get up here at her head, cover her from head to toe. You're going to have to brace her fricken legs." O'Neil paused, thinking fast. "I'm gonna need room to work. You need to monitor her pulse and pass swabs and whatever the hell else we have here."

"Where the hell is the first aid kit?" Kilan barked.

When no response was forthcoming, O'Neil threw Kilan a box of tissues, the closest thing to swabs he had on him at that moment, before getting out of the car quickly. Pulling a hunting knife from his boot he searched his pockets for a lighter and ran to the other side of the vehicle. Standing in the open doorway he observed the young woman's semi-conscious state and vacant expression.

Kilan got onto his former seat and shut the door behind him, then pulled her prone figure onto his lap whilst he lent against the door for support. The girl let out a low groan at the movement.

"Bloody kid weighs a ton," Kilan griped as he threw a blanket over her fragile body, tucking it under her chin.

The older man had had four kids of his own, O'Neil remembered. He watched as Kilan quickly pulled the girls legs up towards her hips and held them in position by the ankles. He pushed aside his discomfort at the whimper she emitted and the tears that rolled down her cheeks to focus on the task at hand. Behind him, he heard Lydecker on his cell. O'Neil got into the vehicle, taking in the dried and sticky blood covering her thighs, he moved closer to assess the damage she had suffered at the hands of the enemy.

" _Jesus._ " O'Neil hissed as he began swiftly absorbing blood and removing congealed semen from her inner walls, seeing the cause of his bloodied seat.

Above him he heard her barely bite back a cry of pain as her legs jerking reflexively. Jondy grunted in frustrated protest as Kilan fought to make sure he held her firmly in place.

"It's okay sweetie." The elder man soothed over the whimpers of the starved girl.

In other circumstances O'Neil would have laughed at the Corporal, but now was not the time.

" _Those bastards_." O'Neil hissed to himself. His hands continued delving until he removed one pair of gloved and bloodied fingers. He had found the tear.

He met Kilan's green eyes and saw his teammates mouth form a thin line. One had to be an evil son of a bitch to abuse a woman, revved up or not. Grimly, O'Neil took off his belt, passing it over to Kilan. Despite her seemingly disoriented state, Jondy's eyes widened in understanding before she began struggling to get away from those saving her life, panting in fear, elbows and teeth gnashing. O'Neil observed that however human she appeared, she was an animal at her core. Kilan's expression was stony as he forced open the girls jaw, placing the leather belt over her teeth like a bit and forced her to clamp down on it.

"Need the antiseptic and swabs here, Mike."

The items were passed over. Kilan captured the teenager's leg before it caught O'Neil in the jaw and set it back in place. A moment later, O'Neil was preparing the wounded area for cauterization. Quickly, he pulled out his lighter, flame bursting fourth and submerged the tip of his hunting knife. When it glowed red, he removed it and with one significant glance at Kilan, applied the blade to the bleed.

He never once glanced at the X5's face.

Outside Lydecker hung up his cell and stood, rooted by morbid curiosity. The muffled screams of X5-210 filled his ears like a wounded animal before they slowly died down to painful sobs.

O'Neil assessed the site one last time, certain that it was no longer bleeding and looked up. The X5 had her head burrowed into Kilan's lap as the elder man soothed her, stroking backwards and forwards around her hairline as sobs wracked her tiny frame.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to the proud gaze of his Colonel. "Good job, Captain. This one never did have much of a tolerance for pain."

O'Neil nodded.

"Sir, we need to get going-" Cameron advised anxiously over the rooftop of the car, breath visible in the cold night air. "We stay here any longer- the enemy will get wind of us-"

" _Don_ ," O'Neil addressed his commander by his first name, turning away from the scene before him. Her situation was urgent. "She needs a transfusion- the quicker she gets one the better."

Lydecker nodded, shutting the passenger side door for O'Neil and got into his own seat as they pulled out, Jondy curled up in Kilan's lap, exhausted beneath the blanket thrown over her.

* * *

Far away, Zane followed the North Star.

* * *

 _Feedback Much Welcomed._


	4. Chapter 3

He took cover and instructed those closest to him to do also. He had seen the small glint of ignition from behind enemy lines, and had pre-empted the dull thud the metal canister made as it dropped. Under the cover of thick foliage, Zane clasped his hands over his sensitive ears, tucking his head to his knees as he rested on his haunches and felt the raw explosion. The terrain underfoot reverberated. Shrapnel and debris flew into and beyond his hunched figure, leaving Zane to suspect that the damn grenade had invariably come into contact with a mine upon hitting the earthy stretch between the two enemy camps.

Just their fucking luck, he fumed silently and clenched his jaw against the pain of superficial cuts. He tried not to think of the encounter that had both sides baying for blood. Of the loss he had incurred.

 _The enemy's number greatly outnumbered their own_. The mantra that kept his team cautious, tight and in front, rose to the surface of his mind and Zane forced himself to get a grip. It was this simple fact that kept his wits sharp against that maddening heat and frustration and worry threatening to consume him.

Coughing as musty soil filled his nose and lungs and caught in his throat, Zane rose to survey the perimeter. His green eyes squinted against the dust and the X5 was surprised to see shadowy figures approaching. A good king always sent their pawns into battle first he thought grimly.

Through the sticky heat and weighty damp of the jungle, Zane glanced to his commanding officer Owl, in a languid movement that belied anticipation. The other soldier nodded. Time to engage. Casting his eyes skyward, a prayer to Her sent in the event of death, Zane hastily wiped the bead of sweat from his cheek, the thrill of combat coursing through him. Adrenaline fuelled him with a primal fury. He'd be damned if he let those bastards take his own. Bearing his teeth in an unconscious snarl, Zane cocked his semi-automatic and opened fire into the flesh of others as controlled as he.

Really, Zane thought absently as multiple recoils jolted his muscles and rattled his brain, they were all pawns in one big fucking game and innumerable smaller ones.

Everyone would be sacrificed and reach the same end, irrelevant of whether they were a martyr or an unwilling combatant

It didn't matter- so neither did their screams.

* * *

The first thing Jondy noticed as her eyes began to flutter was the sensation of blinding white light. White-hot pain shot through her retinas like pin pricks as her eyes struggled to adjust to the ethereal glow. She instinctively squeezed them shut, wincing in pain. Her head ached a dull thud of a bass-line as she buried her face into the downy pillow supporting her, one futile act in her fight to reclaim her tiredness and the blissful ignorance that came alongside it.

Although Jondy wanted nothing but to return to her slumber, she was becoming more alert as the seconds ticked by. There was a heavy exhaustion in her bones and prior to waking she had felt so unbelievably relaxed, sinking into the cushiony mattress beneath her, curled up in Zane's arms, that she almost didn't want to move. Her mind still foggy, Jondy instinctively reached out to find her lover. Her hand found itself bereft of contact. She encountered naught but duvet and a cool expanse of mattress to indicate that he no longer slept beside her.

Sleepily Jondy blinked and fighting a nauseating wave of dizziness as she made to sit upwards, she tried to recall the events of the previous night. Her memory came up frustratingly blank.

Squinting and blinking against the bright light, Jondy prepared to search the room for the whereabouts of her husband, when she heard a doorknob squeak.

 _He must have gone to get breakfast…_ It seemed the most rational explanation for his absence. Silently, she watched the bedroom door open.

Her head ached as her eyes struggled to make out his form against the blinding light. She found herself wondering _just_ how much she had drank the night before, when he stepped into the room. Squinting, under her gaze his grayish silhouette seemed shorter than it ought. Confused, Jondy brought a heavy hand up to her eyes, her instincts screaming at her that something was terribly out of place.

"Za-" She weakly uttered through her parched lips, her voice sounding foreign to her ears. Hoarse. Harsh.

As her husband made his way to her left, panic rose into her chest as she realized his gait wasn't right- his step was too heavy. Anxiety clawed at her throat when Jondy realized she could not see on her left hand side; her vision was filled with darkness, her left eye feeling heavy and swollen within her face. And despite her best efforts, she could not turn her stiff and sore neck to see who the stranger was inside the room.

 _What the hell had happened last night?_

It was only the modicum of rational thought she possessed that ensured she fought to remain calm.

Her instincts were screaming at her to take action, to either attack or run.

"Zane?" Jondy questioned hoarsely as she gingerly tried to shift her heavy body in the direction of the person beside her, her incredulity mounting in a panicking wave. Clearing her throat, she prodded uncertainly, heart thrumming in her chest, "wh-where have you been?"

Jondy felt incredibly exhausted. Not even back at Manticore had she ever felt so unbelievably worn out. The strong smell of black coffee began to consume her senses while the person- _masculine_ , she asserted- moved towards the chair at her bedside. As her sluggish mind attempted to become more alert, her heart beat faster in apprehension: she only knew one person who drank _that_ …

The echo of an eleven-year-old gunshot filled her memory.

Jondy's mouth went dry, her mind going into overdrive: the situation wasn't right, something was fundamentally wrong. She was supposed to be in Chicago- it was supposed to the five days before Christmas- it was supposed to be snowing- they had been at her work Christmas Party, where Dave had challenged her to eighteen Sambuca shots the winner taking home the glory of bragging rights.

She heard his exhale of breath, the straining of joints, the soft impact of the chair as he sat down and sensed his posture to be rigid. He-

But… there had been a _shooting_ \- that's what they had told her- bullet straight through the heart. People weren't supposed to survive that, she had commented at the time and laughed with weary relief that one demon had been put to rest.

She brought both hands to hold her aching head, closing her eyes in confusion. Everything was hazy.

She had never seen first hand what had transpired that inky black night, only been too willing to believe in the words of others she trusted. The revelation sat bitterly in her stomach, it tartly accentuated the ravenous acid that homed there and Jondy swallowed when the stranger came into her line of vision. Her right eye quickly adjusted under his shadow.

From her vulnerable position she reached up to touch her left, feeling it tender and struggling to open.

 _How?_

She remembered the impact of a sinewy fist, once, twice, thrice.

 _White._ Arrogant, vicious…

She swallowed, feeling hot tears prick behind her eyes and focused on cataloguing the changes to the intimidating figure before her: he sat with ram-rod straight posture inside his worn leather jacket, although his face held more lines than before and his hair was graying, his eyes were just as cold as in her nightmares.

Jondy glanced quickly around the room, ascertaining only two exits- the bedroom door to her left and the window directly in front of her- as her fingers gently traced down from her blackened eye, she felt soft paper and tape across her cheek bone. Someone had patched her up…

Glancing upwards, his name sprung unbidden from her lips. "Lydecker?"

His intake of breath caused irrational panic to rise into her chest and fear to swell in the pit of her

stomach. He _must_ have done something to Zane, an internal voice whispered suspiciously in her ear, he _must_ have locked him away somewhere.

"Where's Zane?" Jondy hissed, her tone stronger and more insistent. "What have you done with him?"

The Colonel sighed irritably. Doctor Jacobson had suspected this would happen.

"He's fine." Lydecker told her, trying to keep his tone placating and his frustration from his voice. His kids were too damn predictable sometimes. "He is away at the moment, but you will see him soon."

Jondy stared at him, her brow knitted in confusion. "But-"

Lydecker watched as comprehension began to dawn on her face.

" _He's fine, Jondy." Donald Lydecker, road flashing behind him._

 _Darkness, motor churning… men in kevlar._

 _O'Neil. Kilan. Cameron._

Her hands shook from emotional stress as the fragmented reality of her past circumstances flickered through her minds-eye, disconnected and emotionally loaded.

"I- _where am I_?" Jondy demanded, uncomfortable beneath Lydecker's scrutinizing gaze. Her eyes cautiously followed his every movement as Lydecker stood and shifted the chair closer to her bedside. Jondy was reminded of a lion watching its prey. She had the urge to kick him in the face and run from the room. She would have, if not for the deep exhaustion in her bones.

"You're safe here. No one will find you." Lydecker reassured her truthfully in a measured tone. He knew that on paper their current residence had ceased to exist years ago. But Jondy did not feel very reassured; in fact she felt more on display than she had in the past couple of months. If she were a moth, Lydecker would have cut her up into a million pieces by now and preserved each in its own separate glass box.

"No-" Jondy responded tersely shaking her head, she saw bandages around her wrists and felt bile at her throat. "I- _where_ am I?"

She encountered Lydecker's closed expression and was instantaneously reminded of Zack and the secrets he kept from her in the name of survival. "Lydecker!"

It was imperative she knew: she did not give a damn if she was being disrespectful.

A pause, consideration on his behalf. "You are in Gillette, Wyoming."

Lydecker's words pierced Jondy like knives and her feelings of shock, of revulsion, of disbelief that she could be anywhere near Manticore, the hellish origins of her existence, caught in the web of her childhood abuser and antichrist, sent her heart racing.

"Manticore's gone. I don't understand-" Jondy bit out in confusion, her voice husky from disuse. Her breath came out in short shallow gasps- she was supposed to be in Chicago. With Zane.

"This is my house." Lydecker told her measuredly, his gaze unblinking as he cataloged her reactions, the threadbare emotions she displayed, filing away knowledge of the girl's weaknesses for later use.

"You- your _house_?" Her voice shook as her mouth suddenly went dry in horror.

 _No. It-it wasn't right-_

With her mind ensconced by sensations of confusion and disorientation, Jondy felt heady. The room glowed lighter momentarily and her instincts kicked in.

"I-I can't stay here. It-it- I have to go." She attempted to move the duvet and suddenly Lydecker's hands were clasped around her forearms, pushing down, holding her still and trapped. Lydecker watched her tense figure, malnourished and older than her years, reveling in the close contact he exerted over the X5, aware that it was a liberty he could never have taken in his managerial position back at Manticore. Jondy looked fearfully into her Colonel's face, but met his hazel eyes with a glint of determined gaze.

"You-will-not-leave-this-house. Understood?" He spoke slowly, his tone authoritarian.

Snake like Jondy went to slap him.

Lydecker caught her wrist in a movement far faster than she had expected and fear bloomed in the pit of her belly as he slowly applied pressure to the joint, bruising her.

"Understood." Jondy lied privately shocked to be confronted by her own weakness. In her distracted state trying to make sense of this foreign reality Jondy did not notice the small caress Lydecker administered as he released her arm.

"Now," Lydecker begun lightly, settling back into the seat at her bedside. Jondy looked at him with expectant luminous blue eyes, aware of the throbbing of her body and the ache of her swollen jaw. "You have been unconscious for nine hours since you were extracted from the enemy's base. You sustained many injuries. As a result, we had to give you a blood transfusion."

She remembered blood, so much blood. Screaming. Pain.

She averted her gaze and cleared her throat, eyes burning.

" _Now_ , you need to get up and start moving." Jondy fought the urge to snort- with the way she was feeling it would be a cold day in hell before that happened.

"You are to be in operational shape _ASAP_." Lydecker ordered, sensing her despondency.

Jondy glanced at him indignant. _Bastard_. She was not some lab-rat- some prototype model to be tinkered with, to be programmed into operation. Jondy pulled the duvet back to reveal her thin and bruised legs, her thighs covered by the night-shirt she wore. She twisted, placing her bare feet solidly on the rough floorboards and looked up challengingly into Lydecker's face.

With a satisfied gleam in his eyes, Lydecker stood, ready to aid her should she fall. Privately he marveled at the success of the X5 Officer class: _his kids_ always had been the best of the best.

Lydecker watched as the battered woman, one of few to have survived enemy interrogation, a soldier with only seven years of training, got onto her feet on spindly legs, momentarily triumphant, before her knees crumpled and she was plummeting to the floor. His hands caught her waist and he pulled her towards him. Jondy panted, her mind resistant, her need compliant and underneath it all afraid. The Colonel made sure he was carrying the girl's featherweight, made sure she was secure and stable at his side, before he spoke next.

"You need to take it easy, Jondy," Lydecker advised, concerned. "You're body isn't as strong as your mind." He sensed her bristle at his tone. "We'll take it slow-"

The Colonel made to move, but Jondy stood stock-still feeling sick to her stomach at his manipulation.

"Where are they?" The girl asked breathlessly. Her chest worked hard to regain oxygen as she stole some time to mentally push aside her profound discomfort at being so close to the one person who had endeavored to hunt her down and put her back in a cage for the majority of her life.

"Who?" Lydecker snapped; trying to remain patient and stick to the tactics he and Doctor Jacobson had discussed earlier.

He smelt of pine trees and coffee Jondy realized absently, finding such humanizing knowledge disconcerting.

"O'Neil. Kilan and Cameron." She ground out tiredly, irritated.

"They're with their families." Lydecker replied, feeling her tense at his words, their meaning and implications. "Come on."

He took a step. Jondy followed, her feet shuffling unresponsively.

It was slow going as they left Lydecker's guest bedroom. Jondy felt more heady and exhausted with each step. The hallway they entered smelt musty and was dimly lit. Even as they began down it, the X5 was becoming achingly labored.

At her side, feeling like a goddamned nurse, Lydecker led her down the hallway. He was acutely aware of her thinness beneath the cotton she wore and the fluttering of her exerted muscles under his fingertips as her breathing quickened. He was damned proud to call her one of his own after hearing Doctor Jacobson's report assessing the damage White and his cult had inflicted. Jacobson had advised that ideally speaking, Jondy was to have two weeks bed rest and three weeks of slow therapeutic movement in order to regain her balance, strength and agility. Jacobson had advised that ideally, she should see a counselor for her mental health for at least one hour a day, every day for the next three months. In reality, Jacobson had worked for Manticore, he had pushed the capabilities of the X5 Series and he had given Lydecker one word of real advice: endurance. Whatever the X5 could endure would not kill her- only reach Lydecker's ends.

In the coming days, Lydecker fully intended test her endurance.

Jondy's grip on him tightened as she grunted in pain as her foot rolled at the ankle, stumbling into him as her knee crumpled under her weight and disuse- she hadn't walked since her capture six months ago.

"Keep walking." Lydecker ordered instantly, setting her upright, ignoring her pursed lips indicating her pain and discomfort.

" _I can't_." She hissed hating how heady and weak she felt, yet knew she was pushed beyond her present limits.

"It is simple." Lydecker snapped at her when he saw her cautiously shift her weight off of her injured right leg. He felt a cold frustration at the weakness she displayed. "One foot in front of the other."

His jaw clenched and intent on their reaching the living room, Lydecker decided he would not carry her- she would drag herself through that door if need be. He took a step and turned to look at her expectantly, purposely goading her.

" _You're an asshole_." Jondy spat bitterly, her mind cast back to her time in the tank as child under his watchful eye. She recalled how he had stood fascinated before her and her unit behind the glass, a stopwatch in hand. He had made his expectation of her unit clear that day when he had refused to release her brothers and sisters from their anchors until their time was up, ruthless in his ambition for them and willing to risk individual deaths over the accomplishment of the project goal.

Survival of the fittest was Lydecker's only fundamental lesson as a mentor.

Gritting her teeth, blocking the pain, Jondy shuffled in-line, crossing the barrier into what appeared to be his living room. Lydecker led her to an armchair in the middle of the room, noting her flushed cheeks and the heaviness of her weight against his side. Lydecker purposely stopped and untangled her from himself. Forcing the girl to stand on her own two feet, he observed Jondy sway slightly before rebalancing herself and disregarded the glare shot in his direction as she remained upright. Her demonstration of ability satisfied Lydecker, it affirmed to the Colonel that not only was she one the best of his kids- she was one of the special ones. And that he was doing the right thing by her.

"Sit down, Jondy." Lydecker ordered, allowing her to sit and watching her do so critically. The Colonel observed Jondy lean back in the chair tiredly and he suspected she wanted to do nothing but sleep.

 _Too bad_ , Lydecker thought grimly as he cleared his throat, _you're mine now._

It had been a long time since Lydecker had dealt with an X5 so weak. He knew he needed to ascertain her limits, though he did not want to miss his opportunity to build rapport with the stranger before him. Despite subjective and biased stories from Max and Logan Cale- every bit of information Lydecker had gathered pointed towards a full-scale war with these Familiar insurgents. Jondy was Max's agent in the field. She had been in deep cover for a year. Lydecker knew she had volunteered for the assignment due to her longstanding personal relationships with key elite cult members. What he didn't know was why she was involved in the first place. Or why her mission had gone sideways roughly around the time he had re-established contact with Max and took over operational control.

Jondy looked up, her stomach instantly knotting. Colonel Lydecker stood in front of her, his face impassive and gaze icy. Chills of trepidation ran down her spine, she wanted to flee from the foreboding she experienced, but instead found herself rooted to the spot. Jondy sat straighter in her chair, her arms and hands flush against its armrests, knowing he hated sloppiness. No preamble had to be spoken, the X5 knew instinctively that he was going to interrogate her, knew that there was not a damn thing she could do about it.

"You were apprehended at 0200 hours, on July 25th, in sector 8 of Seattle." Lydecker began in an unassuming tone that exuded authority and dominance. "Correct, soldier?"

"Yes." Jondy whispered, mind spinning emptily. She was too tired for this.

"What was that soldier?" Lydecker growled and she jumped.

 _He growled, ripping into her, pain laced her insides._

 _She convulsed, his taser connecting with her stomach._

Jondy felt fury lace her insides at Lydecker's presumptuousness.

"Yes, _Donald_."

He wanted to hit her, she could tell.

"What happened, soldier?" Lydecker began to pace in front of her. Jondy pushed away her underlying anxiety. There was no time.

"White engaged me in combat after discovering my identity." Her eyes stung. "I was knocked unconscious and awoke in the enemy's t-torture chambers i-in what I later ascertained was known as _Ante Atrium One_." She gripped her hands in her lap. To her own ears her voice sounded weak, threadbare. "I-was-there-for-one-hundered-and-eight-one-days-and-interrogated-every-twelve-hours-about-Maxie-and-our-operations"- Her sisters face, white and bloodied flashed before her eyes and she fought the urge to blanch- Jondy took a shaky breath willing her heart to stop racing, the adrenaline flooding her system to abate. " _He_ \- He wanted the security codes for transgenic-cell 'roger-major'… and q-questioned me on my position as spy in enemy ranks."

"I see." Lydecker gazed down on her, calculating and gauging her reaction, knowing he was pushing her limits. "And what did you disclose to the enemy?"

Jondy bit her lip hard enough to draw blood, before releasing a breath.

"Nothing of value." She replied defiantly, chin jutting out slightly, tone sarcastic to hide offence.

He hid his delight at her attitude. It was rewarding to know that she was not broken.

"It was not within your mission brief to prioritize intel _on your own personal whim_ as _worthy_ of disclosure to the enemy, soldier. What specific information did you pass to White?"

Jondy always had been a master at avoidance techniques during interrogation. Lydecker recalled her as a seven-year-old buzz cut soldier denying emphatically that Max had asked Zack to obtain contraband, before he had later discovered from another one of his kids that Max had _signed_ her request. Lydecker did not think for one moment that she no longer considered him the enemy- he knew that right now, in her mind, he posed as the lesser of two evils.

Jondy glared at Lydecker, irritated at how predictable she thought he must find her.

"I used forward-planning _you asshole_ \- do you think we would be here right now if it wasn't for me?" The X5 hissed, head pounding. "I feed them miss-information intended to aid-our-objective. POW 101." Jondy spat at him. Her stomach churned as she recalled the consequences of her deception. "I leaked that operation 'Combat' was going to be executed a day later than the official date and at a different time. I asserted that Max was unsure of the meaning to the runes and – and that she was too caught up in her personal life to truly be a leader-" she tried to ignore her guilt at being such a liar "-I told them our threat analysis was under resourced due to lack of intel. I led the enemy to believe that in-house fighting had left us disorganized and susceptible to the hostility of every man and his dog- and ignorant to the _real threat_ of the cult-"

"White believed you?" Lydecker asked mildly, tone surprised.

 _He pushed her face first into the bucket of cold water, she emerged twenty minutes later blue and choking and spluttering._

 _The taser burnt across her back, her limbs jerking uncontrollably._

 _The burning cigarette bud was pushed viciously into the flesh of her breast as he blew the smoke savagely into her face._

"I am a terrific liar, sir." Jondy replied steadily, tone sardonic, her gaze void. "I learnt from the best."

Lydecker let the veiled attack slide.

"And yet," he hit back, "Ames White did get the truth out of you- Eyes Only's location, names of arms dealers and other assets valuable to us. That could almost be classed as _treason,_ soldier."

The word alone ignited shame in her belly.

"Please," Jondy sneered, ignoring her shaking hands. "The only thing valuable to our plight is Max and he never got her, _you_ did."

 _Oh yes his Jondy was still in fine form_. Lydecker felt his ire rise, he did not intuit the fear and hurt behind that comment.

"And she is being well looked after by the appropriate channels _under my command_." He pronounced, glaring coldly.

Jondy's heart pounded in her ears, her stomach roiling; the words were out of her mouth before she could stop them. " _You sick son of a bitch_."

"You watch your mouth 210 or I will have you terminated." Lydecker ground out, his tone abrasive.

Before Jondy could open her mouth to respond, the Colonel swooped down on her, grabbing her chin in a vice like grip and forced her to confront the cold rage in his gaze, "do-you-understand-me?"

 _Eva, felled by his gunshot, he stepped from the darkness, enraged._

Feeling violated all over again, Jondy could not cease the tremors running through her limbs at the knowledge that he meant every word he said. _He_ would do it - and that scared her the most. Jondy swallowed, her throat catching and eyes glazing over as she realized she was only alive to achieve his ends.

"Perfectly." Her voice shook. She couldn't stand this, being jerked around.

Lydecker pushed her back into the chair with great force, seeming to come to his senses. "We're done here."

Jondy closed her eyes, sending tears spilling down her cheeks. She couldn't move away as Lydecker stood over her in a moment of realization that he had pushed her beyond her limits too soon.

Jondy sat, listening to Lydecker's footsteps echo down the hall, desperately wishing it was five days before Christmas and she was with Zane, far away.

* * *

 _Feedback much welcomed._


	5. Chapter 4

It was through a crack in the wooden boards that Jondy could glimpse the silent night. There were no stars to meet her vision as she sat, huddled in a chair by the boarded-up window. The young woman only encountered a never ending darkness- and knew, here in the unsettling silence of this house, that she stood at the abyss edge, peering into a sightless chasm- one that threatened to swallow her whole…

-she had to get out- she _had_ to leave.

Run.

… once again.

She would not stay here. Not after today, not after before.

A tear glinted in the moonlight as it rolled down one soft, painfully angular cheek.

There was an achy listlessness inside of her. She was wounded from battle, frustrated at her immobility and scared by her entrapment: her inability to gain any control over her actions.

Jondy did not believe in destiny and yet could not shake the uncanny feeling that her life- thus far- had been ordained by a higher power. People – normal, regular people- did not experience life in a manner such as she; they -despite their mediocre abilities and struggle to live- at least had choice and a modicum of control over their actions. They were not held prisoner by the exploits of others as unlike she they had been born with the gift of free-will. Perched by the dilapidated windowsill, beseeching the stars, Jondy felt _she_ had none. She could only strive for such love, each effort as fruitless as the next.

A sigh escaping her, she unfolded herself and leapt from her post, standing tall with determination. She could not stay here, under the beck and call of the sleeping figure in the next room. And yet, she did not have the nerve to do away with him- she after all, owed him her life. She would just have to find her own way out, Jondy decided with a small grin, gingerly moving around the living room in order to inspect her surroundings. She had always liked a challenge. Then, she would hitch a ride to Chicago and find Zane.

The snap and click of the light switch echoed emptily off the linoleum in the dark room.

No electricity.

Boarded up windows.

It really was the house of a condemned man, Jondy thought grimly. Limping over the dusty plastic floor to the stove, her eyes adjusted under the darkness. The ignition sparked blindly when she pressed the button. No flames flared on the gas stove as she turned the knob. She stood listening absently to the blank firing of the ignition in the darkness.

Maybe her life had been a series of blank rounds, Jondy mused- she had been gifted with a never-reached potential. She had always fallen short- or sought to save herself. It was a strategy that involved calculated risk and knowing the probability of those she loved would get caught in the crossfire.

Zane had saved her from her own worst self, she knew. He had removed her self-imposed limits and given her an out to discover better sides to herself. When he had strolled into her bar in San Francisco, his ivy green eyes pensive and his dark unruly mop of hair every which way, she had known him instantly. Their connection was one a human could not fathom. It was primal, visceral and _there_ always. They were each other's peace in a turbulent world. And they always would be: they were made for each other.

The hack had told them to go to ground. So they did. The bond- the fire that had existed between them as unit mates in Manticore- reignited and burnt fiercely under conditions of freedom. Jondy had defied her parents. Zane had defied Zack. Together, they defied the whole damn world and _lived_ for the first time in their short lives. They orchestrated heists in Vegas. Taught martial arts to kids in Harlem. Bootlegged alcohol in the South. All the while, Jondy had pushed aside her feeling of impending doom, and for the first time, in a long time, was truly happy.

Then, the rest of their kind had been let out into the wilderness of the land of milk and honey- and they hadn't been the only ones. Zane and Jondy had tried to ignore them- the different _other_ ones like them - and to live normal lives. It was only when the bombs started falling on Seattle that the two rouge X5's became submissive to the transgenic cause.

Decisively Jondy released the button as if burnt and turned, hearing the rhythmic breathing from the corridor cease. Her heart thrumming and her ears straining, she sent a desperate plea to the Blue Lady: _please don't let him wakeup, please_. After a few painful moments of statuesque stillness and concentration, she later heard Lydecker's snoring resume. Releasing a relieved breath, Jondy set about her task.

With sharp eyes, the X5 scanned the kitchen contents hidden by the cover of nighttime darkness. It was best to be armed: she knew Lydecker would sleep with his weapon nestled safely in the cavity between his mattress and pillow - she needed a weapon for her own protection. She quickly searched the cupboards, before moving onto open a dilapidated utensil drawer where she found much to her joy a lengthy and sharp looking knife. Jondy wondered idly if he had ever woken up with a blade pressed snugly against his throat. Taking it from the drawer, Jondy hid the knife on her person glancing down at her bare feet as she placed a hand to the frosted glass window. Grimacing, the young woman shrugged to herself- she had run bare foot in winter once before. She could do it again.

Moving deftly over creaking floorboards, Jondy came across the broken freezer and opened it's door, looking past empty boxes and wads of photos (all old and yellowing of a beautiful woman). Jondy rifled through its contents quickly in hope of finding some petty cash and couldn't restrain her grin when she pulled out a roll of old-looking fifty dollar bills. A flutter caught the corner of her eye and she saw one of the photos, old and ancient, float to the dusty floor. Unable to believe her eyes, to reconcile this image with the one she had always known, Jondy slowly bent down in bewilderment. Her hand stretched out shakily as she brought the image to her eyes. It was a young Lydecker with a woman. Only because she knew the truth, could she see the ghost of her features in Max. There was blazing hearth in the background, rumpled blankets. She had breasts Jondy had only ever dreamt of. And he- _god_ \- he-

The cocking of a gun shook her from her shock.

"Just what the _hell_ do you think you're doing?"

Jondy turned, coming face to face with a furious Lydecker and when her eyes spied the pistol aimed at her rather flat chest, the incriminating photo fell from her fingers to land face down on the floor in the moonlight unobserved.

Jondy kept her eyes fixed on the gun pointed at her as she attempted to reign in her anger at Lydecker's arrogance before her temper got the better of her. Swallowing, she forced the Colonel's threat of termination to the back of her mind. She knew he wouldn't fire the weapon: it would be tactically premature- he needed her alive to achieve his goals.

"I'm outta here," she announced to the Colonel resolutely. Stepping toward Lydecker in the grimy kitchen, Jondy raised her chin in challenge as she surreptitiously slid the roll of fifty-dollar bills into her trouser pocket before taking time to score a point, "I ain't yours to keep any more, Lydecker."

Lydecker's gaze narrowed whilst his mind raced. After the lengths he had gone to get the disrespectful rogue away from White, she would be working for him now - no questions about it. He kept his aim steadily targeted at her chest and removed the safety on the weapon. He was prepared to fire if he had to and if it meant incapacitating her as a last resort, so be it; he refused to let her get away from him again. The tactician within the Colonel yelled at him to execute a contingency plan and Lydecker knew he only had one way to neutralize the threat her mentality now posed to his mission; he must trigger her subordination.

It was time to execute Plan A.

"You have been in enemy captivity for six months," Lydecker argued stepping closer to the nineteen year old, noting the flash of defiance in her eyes, "you can hardly stand- you are _weak_ Jondy, how do expect to outrun Ames White?"

He watched his barb sink its claws when her face visibly paled at the mention of White.

"I can fend for myself," Jondy retorted hoping she appeared not to miss a beat.

"It would be tactical suicide-your systems were crashing less than twenty-four hours ago," Lydecker shot back, widening his stance with the aim of dominating the space they both inhabited in a ploy to reaffirm at the girl's subconscious level her subordinate position in the chain of command. Manticore statistics indicated that tried and tested methods gleaned more effective results when it came to his kids. And Lydecker knew that psychological warfare would always be his preferred method of control when it came to her cohort.

"Do you _really_ think we have been able to destabilize the Familiar network to such an extent in your absence- that they won't be able to conduct an effective search for you?" The Colonel continued calmly, assertively, "Ames White's agenda is fixed firmly on the elimination of _Max_ \- and therefore he is not finished with _you_ , Jondy."

Swallowing bile that rose to the back of her throat at his words, at his arrogance- _she was a hundred times stronger, faster and smarter than the old man_ \- Jondy drew on her inner reserves of determination, growling low in her throat, " _you bastard,_ get the _hell_ out of my way!"

Ignoring the anxiety that was building in the pit of stomach, Jondy executed her offense with precision. Kicking out her uninjured leg and striking the butt of Lydecker's handgun, she sent it flying upwards into the air and caught the weapon in one fluid motion. Stuffing it into the back of her trousers, the X5 shouldered past Lydecker, pushing her surprised childhood commander to the floor with a thud.

Jondy made her way to the front entrance of the house, her intention to get as far away from Donald Lydecker as quickly as she could. She didn't care that at 3 am most places that would shelter her in Gillette would be closed. She didn't care that it would be next to freezing outside. She didn't care that once again she would be alone. She knew her odds of survival on the lam were high- the others had been living their lives that way for over ten years.

Jondy didn't count, however, on the hand that would catch her forearm in a vice like grip or the strength with which Lydecker would slam her bodily into the door jam. When Lydecker got up in her face, however, a familiar sense of trepidation ran down Jondy's spine, rooting her to the spot. She remembered the experience of being berated by her Colonel all too well. What froze her was her knowledge of the consequences: month long stays psy-ops, weeks of solitary confinement, beatings, disappearances. It was immobilizing.

Lydecker relished the fear he saw come flooding back into the girl and chose to press his advantage. Reaching behind her, the Colonel lifted the gun and knife from her person. For his strategy to be successful he and she needed to be on equal footing. He pointedly threw the offending weapons to the other side of the hallway. They landed with a clatter on the wooden floorboards, echoing throughout the dilapidated house. In one simple glare the Colonel conveyed his opinion of the ineptitude of the X5 before him, watching her shrink away from him with relish.

"Do you really think I would just let you walk out of here?" Lydecker demanded in low cold measured tones. His proximity to her was such that he could smell her scent as he dominated her personal space. "You hold valuable information on key enemy figures- don't think I bought half of that _bullshit_ you fed me this morning- you have a lot of intel – _important intel_ – locked away in your head that _you're not telling me_ -" Lydecker growled, calling her bluff.

"I've told you everything!" Jondy cried desperately as she made to fight him off and the Colonel was inwardly surprised to see her distress. "I did what you wanted Lydecker- I delivered my end of the bargain-"

Fury laced through Lydecker's insides at her display. There was no _bargain_ : they were at war.

"Shut your goddamned mouth!" Lydecker roared, pinning Jondy to the door jam as he glared down at her. "You do not talk when I am speaking!"

The X5 had to bite back the sob that threatened to spill from her throat.

"NO," Lydecker shook her- hard, abandoning all attempt at restraint, ignoring her glassy eyes. "You fucked up." The words came out in a hiss, his cold rage palpable. "You got caught. You let Ames White desecrate billions worth of R and D." At his sneer Jondy felt color rise to her cheeks. "You are a _disappointment_ and you-"

" _Let-me-go!_ "

In one panicked move, Jondy pushed Lydecker away from her forcefully. A well-aimed kick to his chest sent her former mentor flying into the wall with a thud and the X5 chose to make her get away once and for all.

Attempting to run as fast as she possibly could down the unlit hallway, all Jondy found she could accomplish was a mere jog. It sobering how weak her body was, but the fact served to strengthen her resolve- her only objective was to get the hell away from Lydecker and find her husband.

Still catching his breath after having the wind knocked out of him, Lydecker watched the young woman as she stood before his thrice-bolted door frantically working her way through the complex electronic security system protecting the house. Approaching slowly, Lydecker caught up with Jondy at the steel-reinforced front door, taking in her stricken expression with a small sense of discomfort.

"I have to go to Chicago," Jondy was muttering feverishly to herself as she worked at keying in the security code to exit the safe house, struggling to push Lydecker's barrage of reprimand from her mind. "H-have to find Zane."

In that moment Lydecker understood the gravity of her fragile mental and physical state. Most importantly, he foresaw dire consequences for their cause if she were to go on the lam.

It was time to execute Plan B.

"Jondy," Lydecker spoke gently as he reached out and placed a hand on the shoulder of the five foot two X5. His grip tightened when she tried to shrug him off.

"Stop." He ordered quietly, watching her key in logarithm after logarithm. In the past, adopting a strategy of rapport building over direct authoritarian rule and engaging with the 09 X5's independent steak had proved successful. " _Stop_."

She turned her bruised face to him slightly in acknowledgement.

"I want what is best for you." He told her hoarsely, taking her shoulders in both hands as he turned her to face him, in an effort to change tactic and appeal to her intellect. Her inner distress was visible to his knowledgeable gaze. "Believe me, I have always wanted what is best for you kids-"

At his words a sudden fury erupted in Jondy that sent her heart thumping loudly in her ears.

"I don't care." Jondy hissed removing Lydecker's hand with force. She knew she had broken at least two of his fingers.

Lydecker felt her contemptuous glare pierce him like a bullet to the head and as the Colonel took in the girl's flushed features, a cold stubbornness set his jaw.

"I don't give a _damn_ what _you wanted_ for us! To you we were an 'independent group design testing cognitive learning and physical endurance related to the accelerated advancement of individual and unit overall-capability and out-put'," Jondy quoted the Manticore literature harshly. "We were an experiment parameter, pushed harder stronger and faster than any of the other X5 units!"

The X5 let out a bitter bark of a laugh.

"You never wanted 'what was best for us'." Her scorn was palpable. "You never gave a damn, Colonel Lydecker. We're a _science_ _project_ to you. You wanted the glory of saying we were _yours_ \- that you _owned_ us."

Lydecker was genuinely stung by the accusation and the truth her words drove home.

"You see from a child's eyes. You kids have no idea how much you mean to me. How… _special_ you are to me." How could she be so obtuse? To fail to see the lengths he would go to in order to protect them? "I saved your _life_ Jondy."

Remaining intent on his objective, Lydecker chose to explain himself and to make her see his actions from an adult perspective.

"You and your brothers and sisters were the best of X5. You, Max and Zack the cream of the crop." He held up a hand as the young woman opened her mouth to argue with a heated glare. "Do you remember that night- that night you came to my office- you asked me to see Max in the infirmary?"

Jondy swallowed her furious retort and nodded, she had been so scared that night, terrified that Max- her sister and best friend in the whole world- would meet the same end as Jack.

"I stayed up with her the whole night, did you know that?"

Jondy lowered her gaze. Max had never spoke a word about the night she had almost died from neurological complications due to poisoning from Manticore designed bio-warfare agents.

"I did that, Jondy, for _you_ \- because I knew how much your sister meant to you." Lydecker saw the surprise in her face when her eyes flicked back to meet his. "I know- I shouldn't have shown favoritism- but you were the youngest and one of the brightest. I gave a damn- I'll always give a damn- I care about _you_ Jondy."

At hearing his well-calculated phrasing, Lydecker saw something small spark within the X5s luminous eyes, an emotion akin to need. Lydecker knew from his detailed knowledge of X5-210's psychological reports and of her subsequent life post-09, that above all else she sought approval. It was a desperate desire, which he knew she equated with feeling 'loved'.

It was a need- a weakness- he sought to exploit.

"I know I was hard on you kids," Lydecker told the nineteen year old calmly, his gaze intense. "But I only sought to make you realize your potential- your _purpose_ in this world…"

He paused wanting her to realize the truth of what he said and saw her gaze soften.

"And you have accomplished that Jondy." Inflecting pride into his tone, he observed her unconsciously stand taller at his complement despite the distrust that radiated off of her. "But you are severely injured. You are letting emotion cloud your rational judgment. Sleep here tonight. One night." Lydecker vowed. "You will be safe here to rest up. In the morning we will discuss your options… no strings attached."

Lydecker watched as she turned her face away from him, furiously analysing his words for any trap or double meaning. He suspected strongly that she wanted to trust him, to believe him after what she had endured in captivity. He knew her training, however advanced, had not prepared her for what White had dealt out.

"We are on the same side here Jondy." He reminded the X5 calmly, taking in her gaunt features. "We both want the enemy eliminated and this fight over… Isn't that what you want? To go back to the life you had in San Francisco? To Zane?"

A pained expression crossed her tired face and Lydecker saw Jondy nod almost imperceptibly. He was affirmed in his agenda- he knew it was catering to her needs.

"Where is he?" Jondy demanded, looking up at Lydecker beseechingly, her sky blue eyes big and glistening with tears.

She felt a deep frustration when the older man pursed his lips.

" _Please_ ," she choked out, swallowing the lump in her throat. " _Tell me_ where he is Lydecker."

"I told you," Lydecker barked, not one used to repeating himself. "Zane is conducting a classified mission abroad- at _my_ command." He drove the point home; "I have _full_ operational control over the unit on the ground and can issue orders for any… _restructure_ of command I see fit."

He let her digest this information for a moment and watched a stray tear run down her cheek.

Softening his tone and placing a gentle hand on her shoulder, he added, "I can't tell you anymore than that. He is not in Chicago but I will make sure that you'll see him soon." Lydecker sensed he almost had her compliance. "We have the same objective here- we _both_ _want_ the Familiars and White eliminated- isn't that right?"

"Yes," she vowed resolute, unshed tears brimming in her eyes.

Lydecker watched her face, assessing her willingness to hear him out. He chose to express his annoyance at her disrespect.

"Then I want you to remember Jondy, 'there is no 'I' in 'team'', although _you_ fucked up your mission soldier, you owe me your life. We are a team so you will show me the goddamn respect I deserve, is-that-understood?"

He would establish a modicum of control over her behavior.

Jondy's gut twisted in disgust and she saw red at Lydecker's manipulation. Adrenaline flooded her system, her words coming out in a low growl.

"I just want to make one thing clear _Donald_ : _I_ don't owe you a thing. _You son-of-a-bitch_."

It was pride that dictated her action and the memory of her missing big brother Zack. Shrugging out of his vice like grip for a second time, Jondy yanked open the heavy steel reinforced door and bolted.

The cold wind of Wyoming winter blasted into the small house, her last words carried by the breeze.

" _You_ need me!"

* * *

 _Please Review_


	6. Chapter 5

Her tears froze to her cheeks like tree sap. As Jondy ran, adrenaline fuelling her exhausted body, her bare feet struck the steep snow laden incline with vigor which served to join Lydeckers' property to the access road. It was hard going, getting the hell away from the enemy of her enemy.

Jondy was weak, aware of her calf muscles tensing up painfully in the cold and her labored breathing. Her feet were numb throbbing entities smashing like sledge hammers into the knee-deep snow. Multiple times she stumbled into the snowy ground before reaching the wooden gate of Lydecker's ranch.

Yanking it open, Jondy entered the looming forest and summoned her courage. She forced herself to push her way through the undergrowth: ignoring the sting of poison ivy and nettles cutting at her legs as she battled an on-coming sense of disorientation.

A distance away, Lydecker stepped out onto the porch of the house he and his wife had bought together so long ago, his lips pursed in frustration. Sighing, he took out his cell phone and dialed, eyes trained on the blonde blob sparkling in the distant sunrise.

"Cameron? 210 requires medical attention and surveillance. Intercept by Pike's Hill exit and take her to Bravo House. Prepare Operation Foxtrot... You know your orders, son."

Lydecker turned back to his house, wearily running a hand over his face to rid away his exhaustion.

She had forced his hand.

At least, he thought with grim satisfaction, he had taught her something.

* * *

After ten hours of low-level firefight they were finally in. Zane watched the enemy warrior fall, bullets riddling his body whilst his last gasp rattled through his bloodied lips. His eyes remained open in death.

Stepping cautiously into the dimly lit bunker, wiping sweat from his brow, Zane took a look around not knowing what he would encounter. Although there were mangled bodies everywhere, it was the sight of the priestess that repulsed him the most. She was collapsed over a tall alter, grey matter sprayed across the back of the chamber. He watched with numb curiosity as blood dripped slowly from her nose and into the bowl beneath it.

His wife had told him a little of their activities, but the sight that greeted him was more brutal than Zane had expected. Three bodies were displayed ritualistically at the base of the Alter, with their throats slit and wrists and ankles bound. Zane swallowed as he took in the details amongst the gore; each of their abdomens had been sliced open and placed on each of their chests was what looked like a foetus. Everyone was dead and deformed.

Disgust filled the pit of Zane's stomach. Not even an animal would treat its kin like this, he thought coldly, comforted by the deep sense of satisfaction growing his chest. It was good to have a justification for the relish he felt in taking out this enemy.

However strong a sense of vindication Zane felt didn't erase the fact that he couldn't wait to get the hell out of there and return to his Jondy.

* * *

"Rise and shine!"

Her luminous blue eyes snapped open to stare at the flicking florescent tube light overhead. As Jondy came to her senses a growing awareness dawned on her that its dull intermittent buzzing had permeated her subconscious like a bothersome fly.

Lifting herself up off the cot on one arm, the young woman turned her face wearily in the direction the shout originated. Jondy cast her eyes about, a counterintuitive sense of anticipation thrumming through her veins, to see that she was in a small cramped room. The smell of dust assaulted her senses, giving the X5 an impression that this space was not a routinely used interrogation chamber.

Jondy realized with a jolt that her head was clear: she felt focused. When her roaming gaze came to fall on the tall figure standing in the narrow doorway, she watched momentarily as he stepped over the threshold, before springing to her bare feet. Yanking the IV roughly from her arm, she come face to face with a blond haired man who looked no older than twenty-five.

"Who are you?" Jondy demanded defensively, taking is his six-foot-four height and lithe frame with narrowed eyes. She quickly determined she could use his height to her advantage- one quick roundhouse kick to the back of the knees should give her an extra split second to make a break for it.

"You get your jollies watching unconscious girls?" The young woman hissed when he didn't respond immediately, her voice falling flat and deadly in the small space.

The man cracked a grin seeming unperturbed by her aggression. He had an easy-going air about him that was unmistakable. He held out a hand.

"I'm Corporal Matthew Cameron. Friend of Deck's, _friend of yours._ "

Examining his face, Jondy recalled him from the extraction humvee and remembered the empathy he had expressed- Manticore Black Ops had never behaved like that back in her day.

"Right," was all she could bite out, her mind racing. Jondy ignored Cameron's proffered hand of friendship in favor of glancing around the dimly lit room, supposing she was in a bunker. Awareness dawned on the X5 that she was overcome by a strange sense of calmness, one that left her feeling relaxed and almost normal- or what passed as normal for her anyway. Turning back to him, Jondy cocked an eyebrow, "You sure you went through the 'Transgenics 101' training at Manticore?"

His friendly mannerism was something the X5 knew to be explicitly counter to standard protocol for soft-interrogation. Cameron shot her a serious look.

"I sure am Jondy, can't say I agreed with much of it. But my family has known Deck since forever, he's a good guy and well… in this economy when opportunity knocks you don't let it pass you by."

"Somehow I don't think we're talking about the same 'Deck'." Her lips twisted and she threw Cameron a haughty look. "Ya see, I told him what I know. I appreciate the rescue mission and all," she told him side-stepping past his lithe figure, "but I've really gotta head out."

Cameron's hand caught her arm as she went to make her exit. "Easy girl, not… _so_ …fast."

It took all her wherewithal not to drop him like a tonne of bricks as she wrenched out of his grasp, glaring.

"You-touch-me-again-we've-got-a-problem."

"We are on the _same side_ here," Cameron spoke with such calm as he held his hands in the air, it made her pause and listen. Jondy scrutinized him, looking beyond his Manticore Black Ops attire, to see there was something familiar about him. "There are _grand_ motions in play that you need to be aware of."

That spiked her interest _. Who was this guy?_

"Look-" Cameron went on hastily, realizing just how tiny she was- she couldn't have been taller than five foot two and she was skin and bone, pumped full of fluids laced with Sodium Pentothal that left her face looking bloated and eyes puffy- "how about something to eat before you make a break for it? To go along with those IV vitamins and great reflexes?" He hedged. "There's plenty in the stores here, this being prime dairy country and all."

At his mention of food Jondy suddenly became very aware of her roiling hunger pangs. The tactician in her yelled at her to cut and run, but her impulsive side roared in delight at Cameron's offer of food. She rationalized that without a good feed she wouldn't get far anyway.

Now it was her turn to be curious.

"What kinda food?"

"Come with me." His tone was imploring, expression boyish. "I make a mean fry-up. Plenty of eggs here." The wry grin seemed sincere. "It's a secure location- we're safe. _Honest_."

Jondy did not read any tell tale signs of deception from the man before her.

"Ok." She grunted with a one-shouldered shrug, knowing that she could overpower him in a heartbeat if need be. "Fine."

Jondy followed Cameron down a dimly lit corridor, light filtering in through dusty window panes striped across the concrete floor. The safe house was warm with a long corridor down the middle and lots of off shooting rooms. Jondy could faintly hear someone moving about in the room at the end of the hall.

"Who else is here?" She hissed to Cameron sharply, suspecting she already knew the answer. For some reason it didn't frighten her as much as she would have of expected it to.

"Look, I know you think Deck is the devil incarnate-" there was a note of amusement to Cameron's voice that led way to desperation "-but you gotta trust us-"

" _I-don't-trust-you_ -"

"Well- let us _earn_ it." He said earnestly in reply. "Starting _now_. Breakfast and civil conversation. Simple enough."

Her hunger willed out.

"I can't guarantee conversation will be civil where Lydecker's concerned, Cameron." She told the Corporal darkly as they came to a doorway.

"I'd expect nothing less from the tales I've head, _"_ Cameron laughed, ushering Jondy through to the makeshift kitchen space.

Somehow it made her feel lighter.

Donald Lydecker sat at the breakfast table, glasses on and a file splayed out on the table before him, reading. He did not acknowledge her.

Jondy felt her insides squirm in anger.

"Take a seat." Cameron instructed, gesturing to the table. "Coffee?"

"Just hot water." Jondy told him in low voice, taking a seat opposite Lydecker, who set aside his file notes and took to visually assessing her injuries. She felt more than a little self-conscious beneath his inscrutable gaze.

"Sir?" Cameron turned to Lydecker, who twitched his fingers in dismissive annoyance.

"How long was I out?" Jondy's voice came out throaty from nerves, compelled to say _something_ to push aside her feelings of guilt and shame about her earlier behavior.

"Two days due to exposure to the cold." Lydecker told her disapprovingly, taking in her slightly dilated pupils. It was a poor performance- at age 5 she had recovered from overnight exposure in -20C in less than three hours. "Your bruising hasn't healed." He commented with a frown as Cameron placed a plate of eggs before her. "You're running on empty Jondy. _Eat._ "

He didn't need to tell her twice. Quickly summarizing that it was five months since she had last eaten properly, Jondy seized the opportunity to fuel up, polishing her meal off so fast she almost inhaled it.

Cataloguing her emancipated figure, over bright gaze and ratty hair, Lydecker pushed a container of pills towards her. "Vitamins- including tryptophan."

"No psychotropic drugs hidden in there?" Jondy sassed, pointedly moving them aside.

"Considering your current physical condition- no. They'd probably kill you."

"So you considered it then?" Jondy challenged with narrowed eyes, before it hit her that her overly calm mental state was most likely due to some cocktail of drugs Lydecker had administered. " _What have you drugged me with?_ "

"Take them." The Colonel instructed. "They're to aid with blood-loss and infection."

" _I_ don't do infection- the good scientists at Manticore made sure of that." Jondy argued. " _What the hell-_ "

"You just spent an inordinate amount of time running with a group of people who create advanced pathogens for a living Jondy," Cameron cut across her jovially as he plunked a second serving of eggs in front of her and took a seat with a mug of coffee in hand. "Those things tend to be pretty infectious and I personally don't want to be caught in the cross fire- I'd like to have kids some day-" he actually had the nerve to wink at her- "and not to mention I know the lengths we went through to keep you from dying- I'd hate to have almost gotten my hide shot up for nothing?"

"Fine." She ceded in a huff: he had a point. " _Whatever_."

Finishing her plate and feeling far better than she had in months, she looked up at Lydecker stubbornly. She finally felt ready to play this game.

"So what's your line of reasoning? Why should I stay? _Food's great and all, but_ -"

"You owe it to your sister."

"To Max?" Jondy countered, eyebrow raised. _Man's as predictable as rain in Seattle_. "I don't think _so_. I barely know her. Most I saw of her holed up in that dump was once a week at the command meeting."

Lydecker tilted his head to the side thoughtfully, "so if not family loyalty, why put yourself in the lion's den?" He tested her argument, not believing her for a second. "Fulfilling some deep-seated need for commendation Jondy?"

Jondy's eyes narrowed at Lydecker's jibe. "I did it because the opportunity presented itself. It was tactically advantageous."

"Well, I'm glad you haven't forgotten everything I taught you." His sardonic tone was unmistakable.

Jondy bit out a derisive laugh. " _Some_ lessons stuck."

Her lips twisted in response to his skeptical expression. Once again she was reminded that he _knew_ her- could read her motives as clearly as text on a page. Glancing around the room, Jondy shrugged and changed topic, weary of showing her hand too soon and keen to score a point.

"How do you think I ended up in the Mosse's home for 11 years? Off of Manticore's radar?"

Lydecker did not answer. Her disappearance and his inability to find any sort of lead had always been a sore point with The Committee. He watched her calculatingly; he had a feeling he was about to find out why she had proved so elusive.

Taking in Lydecker's stony expression, Jondy felt a deep burn of frustration course through her chest.

"You still don't get it, do you Lydecker?" Jondy finally asked in a quiet voice, her tone contemptuous and because of her anger the words were out of her mouth before she could stop herself; "The Familiars are the oldest and worst of humanity. _We_ are their reckoning- it's why Sandeman made us. _He_ gave us our mission."

Beside her Cameron cleared his throat.

"William?" Lydecker asked with genuine surprise. This was a puzzling development. "He had minimal contact with you kids in Wyoming..." Frowning, he leant closer towards her. "You could have only been three _at most_ when he left Manticore."

Jondy crossed her arms defensively over her chest. Her gaze flicked to Cameron taking in his relaxed posture. She saw a ghost of a smile flitter over his face demonstrating his amusement at her long-running insubordination and it had the effect of making her feel stronger: it was the kind of thing Zane would have done if he was with her to support her. Reigning in her anxiety, Jondy decided to proceed with her course of action.

"You were ever-present scaring the hell out of us when we were kids Lydecker, but there was more going on in Manticore than you were aware of."

She watched Lydecker's mouth form a thin line at her words. "I had complete authorization over your unit. Over project X5. I was _fully_ aware of what actions were carried out under my command."

Jondy let out a frustrated sigh and moved to lean forward, her folded arms resting on the table between them.

"Sandeman _knew_ his project was getting corrupted," she told Lydecker authoritatively. "The government funding was initially a front- a legitimizing force- then it became something else: a breeding ground for the perfect US soldier," she explained as her parents had done. "But for _us_ -X5- his true project- _favors and all_ -" she took another shot at Lydecker "- Sandeman wanted us _gone_. Out from under The Committee's clutches."

Jondy responded to the cold disagreement she witnessed in Lydecker's expression.

"It was never our idea!" She exploded. "How do you think Zack had the wherewithal to command the escape? He had never been on the outside before!"

The old Colonel's gaze was shrewd, his tone contemplative as he humored her, "so what was the plan? Farm you kids out to families Sandeman had chosen?"

Jondy nodded. "I think so. But then-"

"The Pulse happened. I doubt William had factored that into his plans."

"No," Jondy agreed, "and the night of the escape…" she felt cold to the bone just remembering it "- we were left scattered. I was the only one to make it to the rendezvous point. You caught Zack. Krit and Syl had to change course. I lost Max. And Eva-" her voice cracked and she briefly closed her eyes in an attempt to block out her reality and keep speaking. "Eva was _dead._ "

" _Eva_?" Lydecker questioned and there was something in his expression that evoked the deep ache of grief within Jondy.

"Sandeman gave her the mission brief." Jondy stated tensely, thinking back to that night. Lydecker was watching her face closely. " _Eva was the reason we left_ \- Max's seizures were the motivation Zack needed to breach op sec."

Unspoken emotion passed between the X5 and her former commander.

"Did you meet the contact?" Cameron prompted, seeking to defuse the tension in the room.

"Corporal, you're excused." Lydecker stated brusquely, not taking his eyes off of the young woman before him.

At his words a sudden anxiety built in the pit of Jondy's stomach and when the younger man went to exit the room Jondy jumped to her feet; " _No_! Stay!"

Cameron turned to observe her.

Lydecker frowned at her behavior.

Pacing the room with tears pricking the back of her eyes, inwardly cursing Lydecker for evoking such a high level of panic within her, in her tumult Jondy missed the concerned expression that crossed over the Colonel's features, before her overly bright gaze flicked to his seeking permission.

"I-I want him to stay. _Please_." Desperation coloured her plea.

Jondy could not have explained it aloud, the feeling that was clawing its way through her insides pushing to get out, but she didn't trust herself to be alone with Lydecker - not after the other night. Her hands were shaking, the little light in the room acquiring a distinct brightness she associated with the on-set of seizures as her thoughts continued to run wild.

" _Sit down_." Lydecker ordered, watching her carefully.

Heart thumping as she hugged herself tightly, Jondy dropped to the linoleum floor with her legs crossed in one fluid motion. Lydecker's only acknowledgement of consent to her request was that Cameron re-took his seat at the table, a reassuring presence in the room.

Approaching her hunched figure in the middle of the floor, her face hidden behind a curtain of blonde hair, Lydecker crouched in front of the young woman to silently observe her agitated state; her fraught expression, averted gaze and trembling clenched fists pressed stiffly to her knees.

"Jondy?"

 _The enemy of my enemy is my friend._

Her childhood was screaming at her inside her head.

" _What did you give me?_ " Her hoarse demand fell flat in the quiet room. In her peripheral vision she saw Cameron approach as Lydecker moved away from her side.

"Sorry sweetheart," Cameron was saying with a soft expression as he bent down to take a good look at her, Jondy failed to take note of his shrewd gaze and with her pounding head she struggled to take in his following words, "I may've added a little something to your breakfast earlier to hurry things along. We've unfortunately got a time crunch- and you and I both know you aren't much of a talker."

"I should have known," Jondy muttered bitterly to herself, turning her head away from his easy going smile, " _trust no one_."

"It's not a case of 'trust'," Cameron said to her kindly, gently checking her pulse at the side of her neck. "It's a case of intel, sweetheart. Surely, you can appreciate that." He turned to his commanding officer. "Her vitals are a bit high Deck and the tremors are possibly stress induced- otherwise we are _ok_ here for the time being."

"Thank you, son. Jondy," Lydecker, who took note of her hesitation when she shifted her gaze to his looming figure, resumed his earlier position crouched in front of the young woman, "did you meet William's contact?"

Jondy sat, trembling.

 _"_ _I want you to-answer-my-question_."

She could not drive away the impulse to respond. Clearing her constricted throat and opening her mouth, her heart skipped a beat when she met his steely gaze.

"Yeah... I met the contact." Her softly spoken words hung in the air between them. She almost couldn't believe she had said it, had decided to confess- to trust _him_ \- but now the words were out there was no taking them back. When Lydecker inclined his head for her to continue, words came spilling out of her mouth of their own accord; "he took me with him to a- house… I had never been inside one before- it-it was beautiful." Her gaze never broke from her former commander's as she hugged her trembling arms to herself so tightly she worried she may re-fracture a rib. "Old furniture, plush carpets… I never knew his name." Jondy ran her hands over her tired eyes and rested her chin on her hands, elbows digging into her knees staring at a point past Lydecker's shoulder. She felt numb, sitting there shaking on the dusty floor. "Then he gave me to Martha... Told me I was to live with her. And I did- until one of your men almost killed me in New York when I was 17."

"Their orders were expressly to capture you alive." Lydecker asserted as he gently took her chin in his hand to turn her head slightly towards him.

Meeting his eyes, Jondy dismissed his platitude in one breath, "Whatever."

Her stomach was in knots at their close proximity and the fact that once again he blocked her one exit from the room.

"So you lived with Martha Mosse and her husband for 10 years. They are Familiars?"

"Mm," Jondy nodded, swallowing past the tightness in her throat.

Lydecker waited for her to continue, concerned the dose of psychoactive drugs Cameron had administered earlier had not accounted for Jondy's starved countenance and fast metabolism.

"They had been chosen by Sandeman to take me in- when the time was right. I don't know which families the others were supposed to go with… They had to explain the world to me- parents, school- all of those normal things X5 super soldiers don't get to partake in." She rolled her eyes sarcastically, while behind Lydecker Cameron gave a small self-affirming nod.

"When I got older I learnt the history, their origins- _my_ origins-"

"About Manticore? William's vision for it?"

"Yes. Why Sandeman made us… _special_." Jondy spat out bitterly for lack of a better term.

There was something disturbingly like anticipation in Lydecker's expression. " _Proceed._ "

Jondy left out a shaky breath she didn't know she had been holding.

"My foster parents- and Sandeman- belong to a sect that disagreed with the orthodoxy of the Conclave- it thinks the Familiars have a responsibility to guard humanity from a plague, not end the world as we know it." She paused overcome and for a moment felt she may finally breakdown.

Lydecker watched the young woman visibly swallow, seeming to summon her inner resolve and knew this was what White had contended with on a daily basis, what had sent the S.O.B mad with frustration.

"Sandeman made Manticore to make the Guardians," she was telling him, "he hid us in your camp Lydecker, so we would be the best of the best…." The X5 hesitated, heart thrumming and then said all in one whispered breath, " _it's-what-he-asked-you-to-do-isn't-it?_ "

That one question had been burning within her for years: it was the only explanation Jondy could fathom for her abusive childhood, which had included months in psy-ops, advanced drills and torturous interrogation exercises all with the aim of enhancing familial bonds. Jondy knew none of the other X5 series had been treated the way Unit 9 was- she had confirmed this suspicion when she had checked Manticore's records through Logan Cale.

"I was trying- to build _something_ , the perfect solider- the perfect weapon."

When Lydecker stated those worn words, ones he had told himself for the past twenty-five years, Jondy felt her cheeks flush in anger the glib response, felt herself rise instinctively from the floor to once again stand before him in outrage.

Lydecker mirrored her movements, appearing unfazed.

"Your unit was our biggest success and by far our biggest disappointment." His tone was so matter of fact- as if 'disappointment' equated to a poor grade on a test not murder or brainwashing for weeks on end- it made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. "Which of you kids are William's supposed 'guardians'?"

Jondy released a breath she didn't know she had been holding and pushed aside her anger, reminding herself that they had just struck an accord.

"I'm not sure what he intended." She told her former Colonel shortly. "All I know is Eva was. I am, Max is and Ben would've been- if he'd made it to the rendezvous point that night. Zack was only ever our brother, our leader." Jondy added in answer to Lydecker's unasked question.

"Which is why you took the mission for Max?"

Suddenly feeling bone-weary Jondy could not look at her former mentor as she moved to take a seat the table, fumbling due to her trembling fingers. She irritably scrubbed her hands over her face, pressing the palms of her hands into her tired and itching eyes. When she finally looked up at Lydecker's overbearing presence, although her eyes glistened with unshed tears, her gaze was hateful.

"I did it for _Eva_ ," the X5 bit out harshly in frustration. "To complete the mission _she_ started."

"Which was what?" Lydecker pressed coolly in clipped tones, ignoring her anger in favor of intelligence.

"To _know my enemy_ … To take out the Conclave- I was the only one who could achieve that objective." Jondy informed him, her expression haughty and her tone bitter.

"Why?" Lydecker demanded.

"No!" The teenager exploded, banging her fist loudly on the table. "You-don't-get-to-do-this. First I have your word- _your word Lydecker_ \- you will recall Zane from the field- _unharmed_ \- once his mission is completed!"

Lydecker took in her tantrum dispassionately. "I have ways of making you cooperate 210."

"Jondy. My name is _Jondy_." She spat the words at Lydecker as she got up in his face, her eyes flashing. "I have ways of making myself not care _Deck_ \- about any of this- about any bit of this _damned_ war."

Lydecker's lips twisted sardonically as he looked down at her. "I highly doubt that. I'd wager your _parents'_ wellbeing is paramount to you."

Jondy's heart skipped a beat at his pronouncement.

"What do you mean?" She demanded in a low growl, panic clawing its way up her chest. Her parents had promised her they would leave the country for France.

"My people have intelligence that the French Government has its eyes on the Mosses. I can ensure no harm finds them aboard provided you do your best to _cooperate_."

For some unexplainable reason she believed him.

Jondy swallowed, suddenly feeling overwhelmed her question came out in a whisper; "did- _has_ something happened in Paris?"

"These past months, there have been many attacks." There was no mistaking his grave tone. "I will have one of my agents make contact, check up on them."

"Ok. And _Zane_ \- I have your word?"

" _Only_ if you tell me what the hell you were doing infiltrating the Conclave. None of your obfuscating, I want a complete brief _Jondy_. Now _._ "

" _Yessir_." It came out in a sarcastic mutter as she cast her eyes about her to retake her seat for the third time that morning, gathering her thoughts, foot jigging beneath the table.

"In answer to your question: White didn't know I was transgenic- my parents' sect was separate to his and Sandeman's secret went to the grave with him- well only one of the _Council_ knew; my mother…." At Lydecker's frown, Jondy knew she had to explain herself. "But when White saw my newest set of tattoos- he suspected and I… my position was compromised."

"Tattoos?" Cameron asked sharply, expression alert.

Jondy swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry as she glanced at Cameron. "Wh-when you extracted me- did you not see them?"

"It was O'Neil who extracted you." Cameron took in her blank expression. "Remember?"

"There was nothing reported," asserted Lydecker as his eyes raked over her visible limbs, taking note of the vein pulsating in her neck, the sweat on her brow.

Letting out a sigh, Jondy steeled herself to demonstrate her commitment to their alliance. Reaching behind herself for the hem of her shirt, in one fluid motion she pulled it over her head, hugging the fabric around her chest.

"My back," she said quietly, once again looking past Lydecker's shoulder. "The last set was there."

She sensed rather than observed both men move behind her.

"May I?"

To her great surprise Lydecker sought her permission to touch her body. Swallowing nervously, Jondy nodded, "y-yeah. I mean, ok."

The young woman jerked when her former mentor's dry fingers came in contact with her bruised skin, examining the strange markings across her shoulder blades and triceps. Fighting the urge to flee the room, her trembling increased ten fold.

"Are-" Jondy's voice died in her throat. She took a breath, swallowing against her profound discomfort – _please stop touching me_ \- and cleared her throat. "Are they still visible?"

"Yes, they're faint." He squeezed her shoulder briefly. "Hold still. Cameron, photograph these." Lydecker ordered before coming to stand in front of her, noting her bright red cheeks, his expression impassive.

Jondy sat ramrod straight avoiding Lydecker's gaze while her runes were quickly documented. Behind her Cameron cleared his throat. "I'm done..."

She nodded, quickly drawing her shirt back over herself and hugging herself defensively. When Cameron retook his seat at the table his gaze fell on her, full of sympathy and concern.

"White tortured you?" Having observed the deep bruises, burn marks and grazes across her back, he wanted an answer.

" _Ye-es._ " Jondy replied in one long low breath drawing her knees to her chest as her entire body began to shake anew, her stomach feeling as if were full of live snakes. She closed her luminous blue eyes briefly, forcibly shutting down her emotions. "He was happy to torture me, to enact revenge on his father- because I am the _worst_ of the worst." Her words were flat and cold. "Taken young enough and raised like him- to defeat him and his."

Across from her Lydecker paused pacing to pinch the bridge of his nose and when he spoke his tone was skeptical, "and how are you kids- you 'guardians'- going to achieve William's objective?"

 _"_ _With your help_. _"_ Her stomach sunk as she said the words.

The Colonel took in the battle weary youth before him and knew she had capitulated to his long running agenda of command. He nodded, satisfied, "go on."

"I'm a Spare-"

"You are not a clone." There was a note of derision in his tone as he made sure to correct her; too much effort from the brightest minds of America's Superpower Age had gone into making her, to have her confuse herself with an effortless carbon copy. "You're a _prototype_ , Jondy. One of a handful of Officer class-"

"No," Jondy shook her head and hid her surprise at his response, it almost bordered on affection. "I mean: Sandeman knew there was a possibility not all of his Guardians would make it to adulthood, he could foresee the path Manticore was taking- with it's 'animal-testing' and experiments for private industry for advanced chemotherapy, bone and skin-regeneration- _neuropath_ manipulation. All-" She added for Cameron's benefit "– with the Committee's blessing- on _live_ X series subjects," glancing away satisfied at his sickened expression, she told Lydecker, "so he made 'spares'- Ben was Max's I think, I am Eva's."

"And Zane?" Lydecker enquired with keen interest, resting both hands on the table as he looked down at her. "Don't tell me he has no role in this."

"Not as far as you're concerned," Jondy quickly asserted darkly. "Zane's mine. Mess with him, I'll mess with you."

The promise of severe bodily harm was unmistakable by her tone.

"Got it." Lydecker nodded. "And I'll remind you, Jondy, that you _know_ the consequences that await you," he lectured, his steely eyes boring into her, "if you fail to _fully corporate_ with me."

At his pronouncement, Jondy felt an invisible hand squeeze her heart and driven by an impulse borne of irrational fear, her next words escaped her mouth by unconscious accord, " _Yessir_ , Colonel Lydecker."

"Does this cult bullshit ever end?" Cameron chimed in sarcastically as he flicked through the photographs of Jondy's runes on his phone, attempting to break the tension in the room. " _Spares_?" His tone was coloured by disbelief.

Jondy turned to frown at the younger man.

"Yeah," she answered in a clipped low tone, "and I wish it _was_ bullshit Corporal. Thing is, it's real."

 _And something is telling me you know that too._

Cameron regarded her thoughtfully for a moment.

"So Sir," He began, directing his attention to Colonel Lydecker, "Sandeman encrypted messages into 210,"-Jondy bristled at his casual use of her designation-"being a 'Spare' and all. _And_ thanks to her escape from Manticore at the tender age of seven-" he gestured to what Jondy presumed must be her Manticore file on the table- "she got to grow up with a family of these Familiar psychos. Therefore," Cameron concluded turning to look at the teenager seated beside him and gestured at his phone, "you have a full understanding of what these messages say and what they _mean_?"

Jondy nodded, not trusting herself to speak lest she say too much too soon.

"Well," The Corporal drawled, leaning back on his chair, grinning from ear to ear, "aren't you a wealth of A grade intel, sweetheart."

Simultaneously feeling her stomach clench and her cheeks flush, Jondy retorted darkly, "I'm not your _sweetheart_."

It seemed almost impossible, but Cameron's grin grew wider at her words.

It was a strange sensation, the X5 thought perturbed, to knowingly handover power to the enemy.

Well, _former_ enemy.

For the foreseeable future anyway.

* * *

 _End of ACT 1._

 _Feedback much welcomed._


	7. Act Two Prologue

**The middle, somewhere between a rock and a hard place.**

 **Prologue.**

Lydecker never had made an agreement that morning to bring Zane back in from the field unharmed, Jondy's bout of seizures due to Cameron's botched attempt at administering tongue-loosening psychoactive drugs had seen to that. Now her husband was gods only knew where and she was here, with _him_.

"Are you ok?"

"Fine," she grunted, pointedly staring at the watermark on the concrete wall.

" _Look_ -" her abruptness called forth his defensive anger. "I did all I could to-"

" _Shut up_."

"You know what? I'm sick of hearing that from you rugrats."

"Yeah?" She turned to glare at him, ignoring his flashing hazel-green eyes and mutinous expression. "I don't particularly care. It's your own fault you're in this mess-"

"I don't think so _Princess,_ you're the one who made the error of judgment. Max trusted _me_ to-"

"Don't kid yourself- _Maxie_ wouldn't trust you to manage a piss up in a brewery- if you'd just-"

"What? Listened to your _oh-so-competent_ advice?"

Her eyes narrowed, their luminous blue cutting through the dusty gloom. "Can _you_ speak Ancient Sumerian?"

"Not that I recall- since I didn't have the privilege of running with a _cult_ during my teenage years-"

" _No_ of course not!" She raged, "- you were just out in the world- you know, working for the man and- oh! _Assassinating_ people-"

"Hey!" His bark of bitter laughter filled the small space with spite. "Don't hold it against me because you _regret_ leaving home-"

" _You-have-no-idea-what-they're-capable-of-_ "

"Well," he sneered cutting her tirade short, "if you're any indication- not-very-much."

"Fuck you Alec," Jondy hissed shoving past him, pushing her way out of the claustrophobic room into the dimly lit hallway of the bunker.

Leaning heavily against the wall, it felt good to slam her closed fist against the rough concrete, to allow a dull throb to inch up her arm while she nursed her wounded pride.

Lydecker was actually going to kill her this time.

—

When he finally made it to shores of France, Zane felt empty. All around him was ash, barren and lifeless. He could see what would have once been a port, but now the warehouses had been turned into makeshift crematoriums. Smoke billowed about him, burning the bodies of the humans who hadn't survived the enemy's plague.

" _Foul_ isn't it?" Falcon muttered at his side. These days his unit mate was not quite as upbeat as he once had been. They had all thought it would be a quick campaign- an in and out job according to Lydecker.

They had been wrong. Those assumptions had been made before the Bigger Pulse. Now, in its wake everywhere had turned into a shit-storm.

"We've got company." Falcon cautioned. "And they don't look like friendlies."

Zane followed his gaze, seeing movement up ahead. "We gotta get outta here now."

" _Uh-uh X5-"_ said heavily accented a voice in his ear, " _you most definitely are not_ -"

Zane stopped dead in his tracks as he felt the cold barrel of a gun press into the back of his neck.

—

 _Please Review_


	8. Chapter 6

**One**

When Jondy entered the operations chamber the hubbub of low-level chatter fell to a hush almost instantly. Attempting to ignore Alec's presence at her side, she made sure to keep her head held high as she walked quickly ahead avoiding eye contact with those present. No matter what Alec said when they were getting along, she knew each one of Lydecker's core troop of X5s nurtured Manticore's brainwashing about the 09 traitors- their concealed hatred buzzed like an undercurrent through camp to electrify her every last nerve. Never in her life had she been most aware of her animal DNA.

The fact that Alec didn't miss a trick irritated her to no end. She knew his smirk would be self-satisfied and his eyes keen as he took in the dynamics between the other ones- a horizontal hierarchy was a new concept to most of those present. When in fact all Jondy wanted was to find somewhere to have her own space to think, somewhere that she could push aside the unease that prickled up her spine in the presence of the other ones and hung around for hours afterwards, rather than partake in juvenile games.

Jondy scanned the crowd. Relief filled her chest momentarily when she locked eyes with Logan Cale. Tearing her gaze away from his small nod of concerned acknowledgement, and in effort to still her mounting nervousness, Jondy turned her mind to Zane and what she imagined he would be doing at this present moment. Knowing Zane, he was most likely keeping an eye out for items he could sell back in post-pulse America to make their lives _very_ comfortable. She knew for a fact that unlike his wife, Zane's reality would not involve getting his ass chewed out by one Donald Lydecker, who presently made a beeline for her striding across the concrete floor, his expression thunderous.

"You two! My quarters. _Now_."

"Don't even try it," Jondy muttered rolling her eyes and catching Alec's arm before he went to make a break for it. "'We're in this together'. _Remember_?"

She took some satisfaction from the glare he shot her at having his own words thrown back in his face, before a devil-may-care-smirk lit across his face.

"Nah-uh, not my problem. _I_ don't report to him-"

Jondy's stomach did a panicked flip in response to his words.

" _Move it!_ "

"C'mon!" Clutching his wrist Jondy followed the Colonel into the antechamber on their left, dragging Alec along with her knowing that he was as much to blame for this situation as she was.

Once they were assembled in the brightly lit room Lydecker didn't waste a moment before he rounded on the pair.

"Explain yourselves."

Hesitating, Jondy's eyes slid to Alec who stood in Lydecker's presence with deliberately relaxed posture. All the hazel-eyed X5 did was shoot her a pointed look, irritation radiating from his core. Her eyebrow rose of its own accord in response, so he wanted to handball this to her did he?

"Mind if I sit?" Jondy sarcastically enquired with Lydecker as she one-handedly pulled a chair out from behind the desk, the other pinching the bridge of her nose. "Got a massive headache, probably from the stress of dealing with this _idiot_ for the past seventy-two hours."

There was no damn way she was going to take one for the team.

" _You little_ _bitch_. Nice try deflecting all responsibility for your actions!" Alec unexpectedly exploded in genuine anger next to her. Jondy could almost felt his eyes boring into the side of her head while she pointedly avoided his gaze as she seethed silently. "Your _parents_ raised you real fucking well, you know that? Why don't you tell-?"

Frustration coursing through her, the younger X5 was back on her feet before she could stop herself, the chair toppling to the floor with a clatter as she rounded on her teammate.

"If you had _just-_ "

"It would have been tactical suicide!" Alec hissed his eyes alight with an equal measure of annoyance. "Did you learn _nothing_ those few years you spent in Wyoming? We-"

"What the hell is your problem?" Jondy growled with narrowed eyes cutting across him. To which, Alec folded his arms across his chest and raised an arch eyebrow unimpressed.

"You _smug_ bastard!" It was Jondy's turn to explode in righteous anger. "You have done _every-fucking-thing_ you can to sabotage this mission! I-"

" _I-don't-have-all-evening-kids_."

Jondy's head swiveled and any further retort died a sudden death on her lips when she took in her Colonel's glacial expression before she immediately fixed her gaze squarely on the concrete floor, forcibly gulping down the metallic taste of bloodlust and adrenaline in her mouth.

"Sorry." Witnessing Jondy's shameful reaction forced Alec to come to his senses. One look at the expression on the older man's face led him to determine that there might be some truth to the rumors swirling about Lydecker's past at Wyoming, including the Colonel's rumored mile-wide sadistic streak.

Lydecker cleared his throat examining the two disheveled X5s before him. He knew he had taken a risk relying on Jondy's independence and agile thinking in favor of Alec's training and operational experience, and now he wanted to know why it hadn't paid off.

"I don't care what… _problems_ you have with each other." He lectured measuredly. "They are not to be brought into command. Understood?"

When Alec nodded in the affirmative Lydecker's eyes gleamed with satisfaction before he cast his gaze to the blonde X5. Scowling with obvious displeasure, their commander reached out and tilted Jondy's chin upwards in one sharp move. The blush that crept over her cheeks as she was made to stare Lydecker's fury full in the face ignited a profound sense of discomfort in Alec- a feeling he had thought he could consign to his past. While he feigned relaxation and observed Lydecker's preferential relationship with the 09er the whispers that had reached his ears about the brutal culture of Wyoming fuelled his imagination. Alec watched impressed how, when the Colonel stepped half an inch from her face, Jondy stood unflinchingly while his narrowed glare took in her every bruise and scratch.

"I will deal with your incompetence later." Lydecker announced decisively. Jondy kept her eyes forward when he pointed to the fallen chair in front of his desk. " _Sit-down-and-keep-your-damned-mouth-shut_."

Alec was all too aware he could hear Jondy's elevated heart rate while he watched Lydecker take in her every twitch to ensure she followed his directive; the Colonel wore an expression Alec knew in his bones would have spelt out time in solitary or worse back at Manticore.

"And Alec," when Lydecker turned back to the younger man he did not fail to miss the glimmer of speculation in the X5's gaze, "we may not be home at Manticore, but you _will_ watch your language in front of me."

"Yessir."

Alec knew the best policy in the face of cold fury from command was always to be polite, unlike Jondy who now sat sullenly glaring in the direction of Lydecker's filing cabinet with a tightly clenched jaw that gave him cause to wonder what secrets it kept locked away.

Lydecker nodded, appeased. "This is a time sensitive and urgent situation, son. _What the hell happened_?"

"Our infiltration was textbook. Hiked over forty clicks under the cover of darkness and the site looked just like the picture: a high tech security set up in the middle of the desert and a skeleton crew of security personnel. Nothing we couldn't handle." He confirmed confidently. "We got past security fine- the Familiar's are obviously happy putting regular people in the crossfire; there was minimal collateral damage and we commandeered central control easily enough."

"Then why haven't you kids brought me back the target?"

"A silent alarm got triggered." Alec admitted. "We think it occurred when we were overwriting the command controls - unknown to us." Clearing his throat, he continued tone professional. "So we followed our initial plan. Made our five-mile descent in ten minutes. It took two minutes longer than anticipated to work our way through the opening of the rock bed, but we got down into the underground river eventually. Things were going fine, until we made our approach to the cave entrance down stream. Obviously they were waiting for us and their show of resistance was heavy-"

"- well, that answers why you're both looking worse for wear."

"Yessir." Alec said ruefully, rubbing his bruised cheek. "Problem is they recognized-"

" _Me._ " Jondy spoke up in a dark tone, not bothering to look at the pair of them. "A quarter of them were in and out of _that hellhole_ those six months."

"With Jondy there we managed to overpower them, but-"

"It didn't work." She retorted bitterly and when she turned her head to look at them Alec was inwardly surprised to see her eyes were glittering with rage. "Lydecker- not one-single- _fucking_ -part-of-the-plan-worked."

Alec clenched his jaw at her interruption and cleared his throat, "She's right. Our intel was faulty."

"It wasn't our intel." Jondy bit out harshly, her foot jigging under the chair as excess adrenaline coursed through her system. "It was our assumptions."

"I know you find it difficult to control your temper- _but I gave you an order_."

Alec watched inwardly astonished as Jondy rolled her eyes at their superior.

"So _what_? You need me "alive and contributing". You said it yourself-"

"What I _need_ Jondy is for the intel that you provide me to be sound-" Lydecker retorted coldly. "For the _assumptions_ my team make to be sound. I taught you to think clearly and objectively." He paused watching her mull that fact over with pursed lips. "At present, you are doing a disservice not only to yourself- but to _Zane_ \- to _Eva_ \- your brothers and sisters who took on the responsibility of shaping your development-"

Outrange flashed across her features. "Don't you _dare_ -"

" _White has gained ground due to your incompetence soldier._ "

"You think _I_ don't know that?" The teenager exclaimed in dismay.

It was Jondy who broke eye contact first, crossing her arms tightly over her chest to still her trembling limbs as her adrenaline levels rapidly decreased and nausea set in. She hadn't felt this poorly from a mission since she was a child mistakenly hunting a prisoner in the forest of Manticore.

Lydecker sighed and looked to Alec.

"Take a seat, son. We will be here a while." He picked up his radio. "Cameron, I want you in meeting room one A.S.A.P."

A heavy silence fell over the room and Lydecker took to pacing in order to gather his thoughts. Alec continued to watch Jondy intently, irritation still burning in his gut.

"I understand you excelled in 'Assumed Identity Training' back at home?" Lydecker directed his question to Alec. He never had been privy to the goings-on in the Seattle facility after the initial stages of Manticore's inception.

"Yes." Alec nodded, feeling a small well of pride in his chest. "Top of my class."

" _Please._ " Jondy muttered in disgust under her breath at their interaction and its implications. Not matter how much time Alec spent in Max's company there would always be a part of him that identified Manticore as his home.

"Good. There are some aspects of this mess that might be salvageable."

Alec nodded, before casting a concerned glance to the young woman beside him. The room was not warm, but Jondy was visibly sweating.

"Are you ok? _Here_." He handed her his water bottle.

Jondy shook her head. "I just need-"

"This?" Lydecker said expertly, passing her a ration pack of beef jerky from his desk drawer.

"It'll help." She commented grudgingly, taking it from him.

Alec's brow furrowed.

"What? Never felt the _physical agony_ of missing a mark before?" Jondy sassed defensively to Alec as she bit into the opened ration pack.

"Can't say that I have…" Alec replied incredulously, rubbing his neck.

"Manticore was obviously a learning organisation then," Jondy commented sarcastically to Lydecker chewing away.

"Some of the X5 prototypes have a heightened adrenaline response to close range combat that if not satiated adequately has side effects of irritability, anxiety and sometimes physical symptoms like muscle tremors due to priming," Lydecker lectured authoritatively to the pair. "We worked to eliminate these undesirable responses on subsequent X5 units."

"So that's why I never got the crazy gene, huh?"

"They didn't give you a common sense gene _either_ "

Alec glared at her running a hand through his hair in frustration and shrugged. "Just trying to help here _Jonds_."

"Yeah? Well, _don't_."

The door opened and Cameron popped his head around the door, his normally affable expression schooled to a state of focus. "Sir?"

"Take a seat son." Lydecker gestured to the space in front of him and Cameron entered, closing the door behind himself abruptly. "You're input is required on this. We have a situation. Alec, you as well."

A silence fell as the three men all took their seats, minds racing. Jondy sat irritable, crossing and uncrossing her legs, mostly itching to get out of their company.

"So, Cameron to bring you up to speed; Operation Phoenix was a loose-loose- not only did we allow the enemy to gain insight into our strategic goals, we also failed to meet our objective in retrieving the intelligence target."

Cameron's lips pursed as he glanced to the two X5s. "I see, sir."

Lydecker looked over his glasses to Jondy and directed his next question to her speculatively, "so in _your_ expert opinion Jondy, where did we go wrong in our assumptions?"

"Thought I was meant to keep my _mouth shut_ Deck?" Jondy smirked sarcastically, her inner rage with his thinly veiled disappointment barely concealed.

"I've-got-no-time-for-your-attitude-tonight. _Answer_!"

Taken aback at the vehemence with which he spoke to her, Jondy hesitated a sudden anxiety clenching her chest.

"I just stepped in the room thirty seconds ago and even I can tell you're on thin ice sweetheart," Cameron commented seriously observing the interplay. Alec sat between them and ensured his expression remained stoic.

"Yeah well," Jondy's voice shook slightly despite her false bravado as she looked across at Cameron, "he doesn't have a brig to throw me in anymore, does he?"

He shook his head slightly, disapproving of her blatant rudeness.

"I see why you were kept away from Max." Alec commented dryly, feeling a sense of begrudging admiration towards the younger X5. "The two of you together would be unmanageable."

"Jondy and Max are working in separate cells to minimize risk to operational security." Lydecker asserted calmly to the room. "You of all people understand the importance of that Alec. Now," he turned back to the blonde haired X5 his expression deathly serious, "do I have to get _anymore_ X5s involved in this situation you've created?"

" _Nosir_." Jondy quickly snapped, short of breath. She had few friends here; the other ones would not be quite so forgiving as Alec.

"Good. I thought not." Lydecker inclined his head watching her closely. "I want a clear explanation as to where we went wrong."

Jondy sucked in a shaky breath.

"I… I take full responsibility, sir. It's my fault- things got messed up..."

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 _Reviews Welcome_


	9. Chapter 7

**Act Two, part two**

Jondy would always regret not focusing her attention more intently on their audible surrounds. Sounds, like those of her feet deftly stepping across the mixture of jagged and slippery rock surfaces that lined the riverbed or the roar of rapids a distance ahead, did not travel far in their pitch-black and compact environment. The ceiling of the rock structure they traversed was low and the lack of light made it hard to see- even with her genetic gift of night vision. This fact ensured Jondy focused intently on Alec's doubled-over form in front, matching his movements and alert for any clues he gave to indicate what she might discover in the unknowns ahead. Then, when she felt the path take a sharp decent south, she observed him slip out of sight.

Knowing it was better to stay together, Jondy picked up her pace. The air clung her to skin humid and teeming with life and the X5 fought back a girlish reaction of disgust to the midges and mosquitoes spawning along the waters edge that shot up her nose with each inhalation. Tracking Alec's lithe movements below, she guessed based on their current descent and the typographical maps she had committed to memory that the cave-entrance they sought was about eight hundred meters away and closing. In spite of not wanting to get ahead of herself, a rouge sense of accomplishment began to bloom in Jondy's chest: things were going to plan and with any luck they'd be back in the States for dinner-time.

There was a swell in the river and the body of water turned into what the younger X5 thought could almost be a wide, flat deep lake. Circumnavigating the pitiless water, which thankfully did not reflect her movements, she made her way around to the large fissure in the rock she had spied at the top of the crest. As she approached, Jondy saw the cave entrance appeared shallow and was at best only two meters wide. It could have easily been mistaken for an enclave of unimportance and would not be obvious to anyone without her inherent knowledge of the Familiar's rituals and sacred places.

When she reached Alec's side, his hot breath was the only tell tale sign alerting her of another person's presence. In the heart of the underground chamber, Jondy could not see her hand three centimeters from her face. And now, unsurprisingly, the fissure she had observed was swallowed by darkness.

"Is this it?" Alec asked skeptically. It was not the grand impression she had given to command of the Familiar's scared spaces full of elaborate rock art for their snake-loving rituals.

"Yes." Jondy replied softly. "I can feel it."

" _Feel_ it?"

" _Don't argue_. This is it." Jondy reached out a hand, sensing deep engravings in the rock as she traced etchings that had been marked over thirty thousand years ago. An electrifying thrill shot down her spine at the knowledge she could comprehend their meaning. "Just give me a moment. _Cover me_. I need to concentrate."

After twenty minutes studying the Sumerian runes Jondy determined the engraving was a map. It referenced constellations and seasons, and indicated something about a 'sacred heart'. Her only guess was that another, more important cave was situated somewhere behind the one they originally sought.

"Ok." Jondy announced to collect Alec's attention while she gathered her thoughts.

"What's the plan, oh-mystical-one?"

Despite their pitch-black surrounds, Jondy automatically rolled her eyes.

"The 'plan' is to maintain our orders and complete our respective objectives." She couldn't keep the haughtiness from her tone: he was such a smart-alec sometimes. Jondy took a breath reminding herself that in any other situation she would not have a problem with Alec's joviality, it was just the high-pressure nature of their mission getting to her nerves. "So, three of these symbols reflect our existing Intel which is positive. Translation of the runes is interpretive at best-" Jondy knew it always paid to cover one's ass- "though it seems to indicate two caverns or caves: a larger and a smaller- the smaller probably contains what you're after-" her tone was grim "-and I'd say there's no doubt our _target's_ inside- we're right on time for midsummer solstice."

"You make the hit." Alec confirmed seriously: he had noticed the slight tremor in Jondy's voice when she mentioned their target. "I'll concentrate on my end of the mission. We've got this."

The teenager swallowed down her nerves.

"Going in, let's maintain radio silence- keep communication at a minimum and via Morse code only," she instructed touching the device encircled around her wrist, "- at least until we have the upper hand."

"Nothing worse than two-to-one odds when the enemy has the upper hand," Alec's tone was rueful as he edged his way behind her.

"Damn straight. Weapons at the ready."

Jondy took a step forward climbing into the tight crevice. Keenly aware that they were going in blind, instinctively her sense of smell sharpened and her hearing became highly acute. As she shimmied further into the tight crevasse her sense of touch dominated her body's information pathways feeding back digital data in degrees to provide miniscule detail of gradients and probable environmental hazards. Jondy turned her head back toward Alec, brushing her cheek roughly against the hard salty rock surface, to mutter sarcastically, "even though we can't see shit, keep your eyes peeled."

"Roger, right behind you."

Bouldering quickly across the rock wall millimeters from the jagged edges at her back, Jondy was thankful for her petite frame. However she experienced no small sense of relief when the crevasse widened two kilometers later to become less claustrophobic-inducing, not to mention less hazardous. Instantly the blonde X5 felt the oxygen levels around increase somewhat and her head clear slightly. Taking it as a sign of progress, her insides burned with anticipation: their target was close- and most importantly they would have nowhere to escape from her in this warren of caves and tunnels hundreds of meters below the earth.

The almost imperceptive the sound of voices a distance off filtered through to register with Jondy's distracted mind. One moment later the thin bracelet on her wrist vibrated out a string of Morse code. It appeared that Alec knew how to keep his head in the game: he'd clocked three distinct voices half a click away.

Jondy listened harder. _Armitage. Raeburn… McKinley._

Her hand brushed her hip and reassured that her gun was still holstered there, loaded.

The X5 quickly tapped out an order on the device at her wrist.

 _Engage_

The pair of X5s scaled down the vertical rock wall. They moved deftly and quickly towards the faintly illuminated landing Alec had spied from his higher vantage point. The ground underfoot was level and gave way to a tiled surface. Splashes of light flickered out across the sections of the tiles from within a stone archway, forking out across the tiles to show the intricate mosaic pattern of a Manticore. Their night vision now accurate due to the low levels of light, the pair determined the depth of the arched entrance to be shallow and more importantly saw that it appeared to curve in two directions.

Jondy glanced at the hieroglyphs tiled around the top of the arch with wide eyes. Reflected once again were the three symbols that had shown on her body some months ago when she had been extracted from White's custody. There was no mistaking this was _it_.

At her side Alec signalled the all clear and silently they breached the entrance. The source of the flicking light came from torches bracketed high on the tunnel walls. Although each one cast a section of light to illuminate the path the pair stealthily travelled, both Jondy and Alec were hyper alert for another human's presence concealed in-between the dark shadows where the torchlight ceased. At the last one hundred meters and closing, the pair saw the tunnel gave way to a deep reception chamber recessed further into the rock bed and decorated with elaborate mosaics and alfrescos. Approaching the end of the chamber, Jondy made out two archways, one leading to the left and the other to the right.

Jondy shot out a hand signalling to hang back. The X5s stood together in a shadowy patch, their backs to the tunnel wall, and observed the happenings before them. There were approximately five robed figures, one positioned on an alter facing four kneeling bodies, and a guttural chant echoed eerily around the chamber in a round.

Jondy instantly recognized the fertility chant as a part of midsummer celebration. However in the context of their mission, of the world destroying aim of the Conclave, she had never heard anything quite so ominous. She suspected the four huddled figures to have been chanting for at least eight hours and knew by now they would most likely be in the depths of a deep thrall. The Priestess however would be their primary threat, positioned as she was in direct line-sight of she and Alec.

Jondy clasped the bracelet at her wrist. _One._

Phase One had been devised in collaboration with what was left of the old guard scientists of Manticore- a tasteless, scentless vapour that combined nerve gas and sedative designed to absorbed into the blood stream instantly and non-reactive the two X5s unique DNA. Alec handed her a canister. It felt weightless in the palm of her hand except for its rubber lining, which was to ensure the canister bounced soundlessly when Jondy yanked the pin and pitched it into the chamber hall before ducking back for cover.

Her bracelet buzzed. _10-0-6_. Jondy nodded the affirmative.

Silencer-guns at the ready the two X5s engaged. It only took four minutes for the pair to make quick work of the room: five Familiars lay sprawled across the ground, bare feet poking outside their voluminous robes and each one contained a bullet to the head. However, the ominous silence brought with it a small contingent of reinforcements. And there had to be one of the three who recognized Jondy. _Armitage._

" _Quisling!_ "

The term alone ignited shame in her chest. It was the worst term a Familiar could throw at one of their own: no one wanted to be known as the traitor who had collaborated with the enemy occupying their territory, who had given away their secrets to the meek.

Jondy rolled her luminous blue eyes.

"Nice to see you too Armitage." She growled to the young six foot five man as he approached her, his red robes billowing and his aristocratic face masked in white ochre. "The last time we were in the same room, I think you were perving on my tits."

His lip curled as he circled her and his eyes narrowed hatefully. "You deserved every single moment of it you traitorous bitch."

Jondy bared her teeth in an unconscious snarl. In one automatic reaction she struck out a fist, hitting him square under the chin and knocking him off of his feet. His head hit the tiled floor with a sickening crunch. Sometimes there were advantages to being short. In one swift movement, Jondy fired off a shot cleanly and efficiently. She had bigger prey to hunt. Then a strong arm wrapped around her chest grabbing her from behind. In one fluid motion Jondy used her body weight to flip over her assailants head.

Firing off a shot into his opponent's temple, Alec looked over to see his fellow X5's fighting style was quite distinctly different to the standard push and thrust of combat regular X5s were trained in. It was also unlike Max's creative street-influenced combat style, no it was an entirely different beast: a fluid and aerobatic style that swerved and dived around her opponent. It was a firm reminder that however much he and she shared origins and however much Max may vouch for her, the fact was Jondy had been raised with the enemy.

And Alec wasn't quite sure how he felt about that.

Skulking over to glance down at the woman slain at Jondy's feet, Alec noted scratch marks traveling down the side of Jondy's face from her hairline to jaw, clocked the blood trickling rapidly down her neck beneath her collar. Command had indicated that she was still not entirely at operational capacity and he had been given express orders to ensure she came out of this mission in one piece. He handed her a set of robes, while one-handedly shrugging on a pair himself.

"We have to move fast," Jondy cautioned in a low tone and pointing to the off-shooting passageways, and she issued her directive as they ran quickly to the end of the chamber. "Take the right. I'll take the left."

"We should stick together," Alec argued one step ahead; he rubbed sweat from his forehead scanning the corridor for movement. "We're going in blind here."

" _Trust me_. I have a good feeling about this."

"How about logic, huh? Ever considered that?"

"I've got us this far haven't I?"

He smirked. "Well, when you put it like that. Rendezvous back here in sixty."

"Affirmative."

Ignoring the sticky feeling caused by the blood drying over her left shoulder and chest, Jondy relished the adrenaline thumping through her system. She felt wired. She was hyper alert as she kept close to the walls, a shadow among shadows creeping into the unknown. The passageway was short, only three hundred meters or so and it gave way to a set of narrow steps carved out of the rock bed. The stairway space was incredibly cramped and Jondy pushed aside her instant concern regarding manoeuvrability were she to be caught. Weapon at the ready, she kept herself compact while carefully manoeuvring her way down the uneven steps as silent as a ghost in the night.

McKinley didn't notice her at first. Jondy was just one of the many robed and hooded figures praying before the thirty thousand year old replica of Ni'ate with her head turned and her two snakes, Or'ian and Scori entwined along her long arms, representing the male and female energies. Jondy's heart skipped a beat when she looked directly at Ni'ate, while the collective effervescence of the small cavern invaded her senses installing a sense of wonder. Head bowed beneath her hood, the young X5 contritely kneeled at the back of the low ceilinged room and prayed.

Jondy knew she would be here a while. There were at least twelve Familars present- too many of them for her to fight alone. She would have to wait for the lower caste Familiars to exit the sacred chamber. Being of a high-caste order like herself, McKinley would be required by protocol to maintain a continuous presence fasting until the end of Solstice. For Jondy had planned their mission well, the time she and Alec had infiltrated being so early in the morning meant that in an hour or so she and McKinley would be in Ni'ate's chamber alone.

Jondy did not think as she joined the mass chanting under her breath; her mind subconsciously scanned her environment and over a period of forty-five minutes noted eleven Familiars leave the chamber to undertake ritual assistance. Then, she heard muffled steps and caught a whiff of incense that returned her to her senses as the High Kinslei left, walking past her prostrate form swamped in red.

A pair of booted feet came into her line of vision.

" _Fe'nos'tol_. I knew you would come this Solstice, my Girl."

Jondy raised her hooded head slowly to look up into McKinley's round face, her luminous blue eyes cutting through the hazy yellow light.

"Fe'nos'tol my Father." Jondy uttered the polite words slowly rising to her feet shrugging off the red robe to reveal her black cat suit, her hands resting by her sides in a deceptively casual move.

McKinley gave her a once over, something like betrayal glittering behind his gaze.

"I heard, you know, what the Phalanx did to you when you were found out." He spoke conversationally, like they were old friends catching up over a meal. "How their _delight_ to finally have one of Sandeman's weapons on their hands led to an over zealous appeal for information."

Jondy swallowed, feeling the blood drain from her face.

"I know they were particularly unkind to you. And, how you endured Ames' _special interest."_ McKinley smirked. "You know how he is, always wanting to redeem himself."

The Elder peered at her through his glasses.

"Well," he drawled, "was it worth it?"

"It will be," Jondy retorted brandishing her hand gun in one fluid move- then she felt herself slammed bodily into the wall some feet behind her, pinned by the invisible force of McKinley's gaze.

"I-see-Samuel-taught-you-a-new-trick-" she spat out through gritted teeth, fighting against the invisible weight on her chest.

McKinley slowly approached her spread-eagled form letting her tire herself out. Wrenching the weapon from her hand, he tisked, "you had so much potential, my Child."

Jondy glared. "You-can't-hold-this-up-forever. You've been fasting for days."

"Yes I am fatigued- that's why you came," McKinley commented, "but a little discipline never hurt you before."

Jondy felt irrational panic begin to rise from the pit of her stomach while her head wound continued to bleed slow and steady. " _Let-me-down_."

McKinley tisked once more. "Is that how you speak to your Elders?"

Jondy struggled defiantly for a while, before finally conceding. All the while McKinley watched calculating.

" _Please,_ my Father," she chocked out as the weight pressing on her lungs become unbearable, "I invoke the mercy of Ni'ate on this hallowed eve. You are duty bound to deliver it. _Kin-to-kin_ let us resolve our dispute."

" _Very well._ " Jondy fell like a sack of potatoes onto the tiled floor, coughing. _"_ I knew a proper upbringing had beat out the filth of your origin."

In one quick move, Jondy rushed at McKinley tackling him hard to the ground, knocking over a flaming torch-stand in the process. As the flames licked the material wall hangings, smoke billowed and slowly began to fill the cavern.

"Sacrilegious _Quisling_!"

Jondy punched him square in the face, savouring the sickening crunch of his jawbone. McKinely spat blood onto the floor, his shattered glasses hanging lopsidedly on his face. His rib bones dug into her legs as she sat across his chest, his limbs rubbery at his sides as she purposeful cut off blood flow in an attempt to incapacitate him. Jondy relished how weak the ten day fasting ritual had left him. It was almost too easy, but first she had business to attend to.

Jondy reached for the collar of his robes, yanking his face toward her. "Three days ago a contingent of Transgenic soldiers were taken hostage in Nice. What has DeMonde done with them?"

"I 'ave no know-ledge about 'ti'sis." McKinley told her around broken teeth.

"Liar!" She did not believe him for a second; he was first-cousins with DeMonde through his mothers line, if any of the Familiars in the Americas knew about operations in Europe McKinley would.

Jondy punched him again. This time his glasses flew off of his face shattering on the tiles, while around smoke continued to billow as the wall hangings smouldered in the cramped cavern environment.

McKinley started coughing.

"Tell me!" She demanded shaking him.

Struggling to breathe, McKinley nodded, gasping out, "Alright, alright. They were taken to the Old Town."

At the sound of a sudden roar, Jondy glanced up to see the lacquered alter consumed by flames. McKinley pounced. Jondy found herself flipped on her back, McKinley now pinned her to the ground. Jondy quickly punched him in the mouth again and took advantage of McKinley's dazed state to leverage her free arm and knee him in the stomach, creating enough distance to roll away from him and get to her feet. Quickly taking in the growing fire around the perimeter, Jondy turned back to face the Elder, fists raised, knowing they had minutes before they'd both be burnt alive.

"Trans'enic scum!"

In his rage all pretence of candour was gone, McKinley attacked hard and fast. Jondy blocked blow after blow with both her arms and legs as he pressed his advantage successfully backing her into a corner. His hard elbow to the side of her cheek left her ear ringing. McKinley grabbed her arm, twisting her around to wrench her elbow up the small of her back and pressed her wrist between her shoulder blades. With his free hand, he wrenched her head back by her hair. It would have been easy for him to strangle her there and then.

"I don't know 'ow you escaped _Ante Atrium_ \- but I intended to send 'ou back there."

" _Fat chance old man_."

Jondy pushed all her weight onto him and leveraging herself, walked her feet up the wall, to flip neatly over McKinley's head and un-holster her concealed weapon. Yanking him around to face her, Jondy pressed the weapon into McKinley's temple.

"Make your prayers." She ordered.

Instead of fear, his gaze was shrewd as he stared at her.

"DeMonde has more pressing priori'ies than your _'ilthy compa'rio's_." He spat at her sweat trickling down his forehead. "It's the Old Town cells you 'ould be worried abou', they're crawling with defec'ors."

Jondy refused to take the bait about her parents. It was a transparent ploy to distract her and her instincts were screaming that McKinley hid something important.

"Bullshit." She scoffed; sweat running down her back against the heat of flames behind her. "Where is DeMonde holding them? Answer!"

Behind them the billowing smoke grew thicker, stinging Jondy's eyes and itching her throat.

Looking her square in the eye, McKinley took his chance, head butting her sharply. In one swift move, coughing against the lack of oxygen in the room, he kicked her swiftly into the wall, the sound of her ribs cracking making a satisfying crunch.

"Your mate won't get out of there alive." McKinley enunciated his promise, staring down at her soot-streaked face. He spat out two of his broken teeth in her face. "And it looks like you're going to meet the same fate… _Now, where is 4-9-4_?"

As per Jondy's irrational order, Alec stealthily navigated the shadows of the arched passageway. For someone of his stature it was cramped, the ceiling hung low overhead and unlike the entrance to this labyrinth, it was annoyingly poorly lit. Only because of his inherent night vision could Alec make out the grainy figures of two darkly robed individuals ahead. He didn't know who they were, but he had a feeling with the limited options this current scenario presented they would lead him to where he needed to be. Sticking to the shadows he followed, imperceptible to those around.

They led him down the wending course of a small, undecorated tunnel. It smelt of salt and damp. And when Alec's hand brushed the walls he was unsurprised to encounter them slick with mineral deposits. His primary objective was to collect the chemical weapon their intelligence indicated was being held in this location. The Familiars had a strange sense of occasion- Alec could not fathom why in the hell anyone would store weapons of mass destruction in a place used for religious worship. Eagle eyed and focused, Alec spied the pair halt and open a door at the end of the corridor.

Approaching silently, weapon at the ready, Alec saw that the last two hundred meters of the small passage way was made up of four off-shooting doorways. An interesting turn of events, he had no idea which one would house what he was after. Alec hung back, watching as a moment later the two Familiars returned, carrying trays of incense and a pot of clay. Jondy had mentioned something about castes and ritual preparation though he hadn't really been listening at the time. It had all been a bit superfluous to the main mission objective. The pair sauntered purposefully past oblivious to his hidden presence.

Intelligence indicated the weapon would be most likely stored with the initiation pathogen and the other pathogen strains the Familiar's used to initiate certain castes into other more rigorous breeding programs. Alec had assumed he would be looking for lab, but sensed the clue might be a little more parochial than that. After all the Familiars didn't seem to take too warmly to new fandangle concepts, such as _science_.

As luck would have it, the last door on the right hand side of the corridor was the one he was after: the caduceus symbol was a strong indicator. Quietly Alec opened the heavy cedar door and stepped into the small cramped space. The room was illuminated by candle light flickering from a small alter situated at the back of the room dedicated to one of their holy snake gods.

"I wondered how long it would take you to figure it out," commented a snide voice to his left, one Alec would recognize anywhere.

" _Hello_ 494."

Alec did not have time to react before Ames White landed a deafening blow to his head, sending him reeling backwards. Palms slapping against the wall face down, he managed to successfully break his fall while keeping his enemy in view. Rolling his shoulders to work away the impact that climbed up his arms, Alec smirked at White, not showing his surprise.

"Didn't realise you were into cross-dressing Ames." Alec quipped rubbing his cheek.

The hate White harbored for the X5 could not be hidden behind his ochre white mask. White's eyes narrowed spitefully.

"You didn't come alone 494." His tone was too assured for Alec's liking. "Where's that _bitch?_ "

"Which one? Ladies love following me around," Alec retorted, eyes scanning the cluttered room for anything that might signal he was in the right place. The weapon was small, concealable and highly toxic. It left him with a lot of options to work out on his own. Somehow he had to get White to tip him.

White smirked arrogantly.

"2-1-0." He spelt out, holding up a grainy print out. " _Surprise._ Caught on candid camera. We have _unfinished_ business and I owe it to her to put an end to it all."

 _Shit._ That explained why he was questioning Alec, rather than pummelling him within an inch of his life.

"No idea." Alec shrugged inching his way into the room. "Could be having a holy snake baptism for all I know."

His hand brushed the concealed weapon at his thigh.

"I _know_ she is in the Labyrinth somewhere." White stepped toward him, robes flaring, an aura of intensity radiating from his core.

" _Funny._ " Alec commented sarcastically, unlocking the weapons safety. "I wasn't expecting to see you here White. See heard through the grape vine that your name is mud in these parts."

"You think you can goad me into giving up intelligence?" White scoffed. "Our plans far exceed the limited scope of your _imagination_ 494."

Alec's eyes narrowed at the barb regarding his indentured service to Familiar some year and a half ago.

"Like, biblically bad?"

White barked out a laugh. "What the hell are you doing here 494?"

Then Alec saw it, glinting in the breast pocked of White's suit concealed under the brown robes he wore.

"Oh you know, just seeing the sights Mexico had to offer," Alec quipped drawing his weapon in one fluid move. He fired one quick efficient shot into White's thigh. The Familiar didn't even bat an eyelid. Sometimes it really sucked that the sonofabitch didn't feel any pain.

Executing plan b with a roar, Alec tackled the Familiar driving him to the ground. He made sure to land several blows to White's head hard and fast. Brawling on the ground, both men quickly became tangled in the copious amounts of material of the brown and red robes each wore. In melee Alec, true to the slight of hand he was famous for on the poker table, expertly swiped the vial concealed on White's person. He took action just in the nick of time, because the Familiar was then able to manoeuvre his way from out beneath him with a well-placed kick to Alec's stomach.

Circling White, fists raised, Alec caught his breath.

"Bet you folks will rethink your no weapons on Midsummer Solstice rule, huh?"

"Has anyone ever told you, you have a smart mouth?" White retorted landing a flurry of punches squarely on his opponents jaw.

Half dazed the X5 dropped a round-house kick. Tangled in his robes and off kilter, White fell hard to the ground, smacking his head hard with a thud. Alec stood over him foot pressed to White's chest, gun trained squarely on his forehead. Then, the pungent smell of smoke assaulted Alec's sensitive nose and caused panic to rise in his chest.

Knocking White out cold, Alec made a break for it, happily leaving Ames White to burn.

His face concealed under the hood of his robe, Alec retraced his steps walking swiftly back to the rendezvous point. Their sixty minutes were up and Jondy was nowhere to be seen. Worried, he decided to venture down the path Jondy had taken, following the direction the whiff of smoke came from. At the end of the passageway the X5 saw faint plumes wafting up from a cramped stairwell. Crouching low, weapon at the ready Alec carefully stepped into the unknown, drawn on by Jondy's wane voice speaking fluent Familiar.

From his high vantage point Alec observed one Senator McKinley, Seattle's most recognizable politician, stood over Jondy's prostrate form.

"- _4-9-4?_ "

Catlike Alec vaulted, noting Jondy's gaze track his movement.

"Right here." Alec announced. McKinley turned. It only took .025 of a second for Alec to put a bullet in his brain.

Swiftly approaching Jondy, who lay, semi-conscious on the ground, Alec honed in on her right palm. It had been cut horizontally, a red deep gash wrapped in a snake-shaped brand. A ceremonial ivory knife lay next to her.

Alec roughly shook her shoulder and the young woman coughed against the smoke and grime present in the air.

" _See_ I told you, you couldn't do this alone." The words came out more harshly than intended.

Alec stretched out a hand to Jondy's prone form, lifting her to her feet. The hazel eyed X5 gave her a once over seeing that she bore her weight evenly: she could walk, though he was more concerned about the way she was holding her side.

"So, it's out the trap door we go, hey?" He made sure to keep his tone somewhat jovial.

Alec pointed to the wooden panel in the corner of the chamber, eyes watering against the smoke and heat. Thankfully he had thought ahead and brought grappling gear along for the mission. He would be able to successfully hoist them both into the roof cavity. Running over and quickly yanking the pulley cord, Alec opened the trap door and the burst of oxygen into the chamber whipped the flames into frenzy. Time was not on their side.

"C'mon!"

Alec observed Jondy critically as she jogged across to him. He was conscious of her deteriorating condition- she was looking decidedly blarey-eyed. They needed to make their exit _fast_. Taking charge he quickly fired off the grappling hook, anchoring their rope to the tiled floor with a heavy carved statue of a naked woman.

"Ok," Alec turned back to the soot covered X5. "I'll piggy back you. Get on."

Jondy jumped, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and Alec knew she couldn't have possibly weighed more the fifty kilograms. He launched himself up onto the rope, traveling slightly slower with the extra weight and thought grimly to himself that the world outside Manticore's bars had made him soft.

Suddenly, a yell rented the air cutting through the thunderous whooshing of the raging fire. The X5s both turned their heads quickly to see Ames White, battered and bruised from Alec's handiwork, limping into the fiery chamber, his face contorted in rage.

"I can take him." Jondy hissed into Alec's ear and he knew she was consumed by thirst for revenge. Already, she was reaching one-armed for her secondary weapon, throwing him precariously off balance.

" _No_." Alec ordered upping his pace. There was no mistaking his authority. "We fallback. _Hold on tight_. We have to get the hell out of here before the whole place goes up in flames."

Scaling the rope rapidly, they climbed into the roof cavity. Quickly pulling the heavy trap door shut, dodging the bullets that tore through the cedar wood trapdoor courtesy of White's frenetic firing below, Jondy's gasping filled the dark small space while the pair took a moment to regroup.

Alec turned to face her and when she met his eye, he didn't like her mutinous expression one bit.

" _Don't start._ "

He was mightily aware that the roof cavity was rapidly becoming unbearably hot.

"But-"

Alec pointed to the rough surface of the chute above their heads. Through the opening overhead the stars were visible, tiny specs glittering some seven hundred meters above.

" _Climb_."

… so you see Sir, I fucked up. The Familiars now know we are assassinating their top castes. White most likely is alive. McKinley is dead _not_ because I could complete my objective- and we lost the weapon."

Jondy glanced down to her shaking hands, before looking up to Lydecker.

The Colonel's expression was grim to say the least.

—_-_-

The small bar tucked in a Gillette alley was busy for a weeknight. It meant patrons were too busy catching up with friends, dates or colleagues to pay attention to the impish blonde and her two handsome companions who occupied a table in one dimly lit corner behind the bar. It was just the way they wanted it.

"Max has made it clear she trusts him. We don't have a lot of options- public sentiment being what it is." Alec's tone was dry.

"I don't care what Max says." Jondy snapped recalling Zack's frequent diatribes about her sister's recklessness. "We _have_ a choice. Lydecker can't be trusted. Don't think for second that he won't double cross us when this is all over. He will broker the deal to sell who's left of us to the highest bidder!"

"You mean sell any remaining X5s back to _The Committee_ for a profit." Cale said knowingly over his whisky. "Despite Eyes Only's failed efforts to find out more and expose their true interests, I have every suspicion that The Committee is biding its time; waiting for the right opportunity to get Manticore back into action."

"Sounds accurate." Alec mused. "They can't be happy with the hit they've taken to operations at home and aboard in the past eighteen months."

A heavy silence descended on the group.

"Look into a Director John Worthington." Jondy was the first to speak and her tone was decisive. "Lydecker met with him to discuss arms supplies. Something's going on- _I know it_ \- they're old military buddies."

"Ok." Cale nodded. "I'm sorry we couldn't stay longer-"

"No, it's fine. _I_ need to sharpen my negotiating skills." Jondy dismissed. "Poor result getting you two up here for only three days to do this op with me."

Alec knocked back his whisky and smirked at her words. "Well no one said Lydecker was a fool. _First rule of command: control information flows._ "

Knowing her time was up and she was due back at base, Jondy rose from her seat, threw a fifty-dollar bill to the table and took the photographs Cale had placed there with a small sigh.

"What happened-?" Cale instantly honed in her injured palm.

"Nevermind." Jondy swiftly replied. "Look, I know she's caught up being the poster child for all things transgenic." The X5 shot Cale a piercing look as she pulled on her duffle coat. "But remind Maxie not to forget who the real enemy is." Turning to the hazel-eyed man at her side, her eyes were grateful. "Later Alec- and thanks, you know, for having my back- and sorry- for being such a bitch. Logan-" Jondy held up her new scrambled cell grinning-"I'll be in touch."

Alec watched the young woman walk away with a contemplative stare; she was more dangerous than given credit for.

"Happy Logan?"

The older man shot him a look before knocking back his whisky with a smack of his lips. "Having eyes and ears here will do for now."

"That it will." Alec nodded and absently shrugged a shoulder, before he cracked a sarcastic grin. "Lets go, tell Max the good news."

The pair made their exit, strolling in-step. None of the other patrons paid mind to Alec other than to notice his good looks wrapped inside a dapper black leather jacket. None thought anything of his right hand buried inside its pocket nor would have ever suspected it held in place a palm-sized cylindrical vile concealed in the jacket's slippery lining.

—_

 _Feedback Welcome_


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